Winged Men
by Hawk Strife
Summary: Third Impact is a thing of the past, and Shinji Ikari meets up with a friend unknown to anyone, and now he will go to war as a pilot...will he return home or simply die fighting? A New Update!
1. Default Chapter

I'm gonna work on this story along with the Zoids one. I will now warn fans that I have the pairings ready for this. Also that this is a major crossover with some very predictable coincidental things in the much later chapters, and I will understand that they are coincidental. I also have one other thing, this fic has some nationalism in it, in other words honor in one's country. I will understand that some people may not like and even hate these countries but if they feel the need to put it in a review, and this goes for flamers too!, you better have the balls and put in your motherf***ing author name or user name and not "??????". I've seen the others and I will tell you that those people are nothing but spineless cowards that can't stand up for what they say! You cannot go saying something and feel proud about it when your too scared to give out your own author name or real name, so don't give me any of that crap.   
  
And so, having said my piece I give you my first Crossover fic.  
  
The New ISAF Pilots  
  
A 17 year old Japanese boy stands besides another boy the same age but this person was a US American, and had dark skin. The Japanese boy had black hair and blue eyes along with a white shirt and long black pants. The US American boy had black hair and brown eyes along with camouflage pants and a black button up shirt. They both stood in front of a counter in a bar, both having some light drinks. They were Shinji Ikari from Japan and Seer Reins from the States. It has been 3 years since the third impact was thwarted thanks to the Evangelion Pilots. The earth turned into a red bloody like planet but soon life came once more. And the red ring that once surrounded the planet fell and gave life to the humans who lived on earth before. That ring held all the souls of humanity who had yet to reach heaven or hell.  
  
Shinji believed that his father was there, along with his mother, and maybe even Mana. Shinji made the decision of leaving before the people began to come back to life. Once life was back to normal he met Seer Reins, a very old friend from the past. Shinji could still remember how they first met.  
  
Shinji was playing in a sandbox with some other kids, but they left all of a sudden because their parents were there…parents were something Shinji only dreamt of at that time. Then, after finishing his work in the sandbox, he stared at it…and simply destroyed it with a good kick. Seer suddenly appeared at that moment wondering why Shinij had done such a thing, he then began to help Shinji rebuild it. Years passed and the two became the best of friends, however, Seer had to move to the United States at some point in life and they separated.   
  
Then, the war between the Angels and the Evas started, Shinji fought in it while Seer simply heard stories of the war. Now, they were both together as best friends once more, but now they were in a different war. The Eurasian versus ISAF HQ. Shinji and Seer decided to enroll into the International States Air Force and had been going through training for close to 2 years. Now they were ready to fight, and they were given the same planes and were even in the same squadron. They piloted the F-16 type C plane, and they both hoped to get promoted to even better planes in the future. They were stationed with a new squadron of pilots their age but they had yet to meet these people. The squadron still needed a new codename but that would be decided once they met.  
  
In fact, they were in that bar waiting to meet their new comrades, and they would soon meet their Commanding Officer who would hopefully fly with them, since Seer and Shinji still felt a little green. "We're only privates, but at least we're pilots……I'm pretty sure that we can get promotions easily if we can increase our kill rates…you know?" Seer said in a low voice that only he and Shinji could hear. Shinji nodded slightly "It's going to take a while before I can do something like shoot down a plane, without too much remorse…so it'll probably take me a while to get a good kill rate"  
  
Shinji then sighed as he took another drink of his alcoholic drink "Never thought I'd ever be having one of these" he said. Seer chuckled, "I guess I didn't either, but when you realize that you're going to fight and you could die…well, I guess we all seek for a safe haven even if its temporary"  
  
Shinji nodded and turned around so that his back was leaning against the counter of the bar, his eyes then focused on a group of people their age walking through the doorway, and they were with a guy maybe twice their age. The group saw the two friends leaning against the bar and then began to walk towards them with the oldest man leading them. Seer then turned around too and saw that there were 5 people not including the oldest guy, 2 girls and the rest were guys. When the oldest stood in front of the two friends he stopped, looked at both of them with an emotionless face, and then asked "Are you Seer Reins and Shinji Ikari?" they both nodded at the question so the man continued, but this time he had a look of relief "I was afraid we wouldn't find you in this bar, I'm happy I was wrong"   
  
Seer laughed and stood up, then the man smiled "I'm Captain Charlie Mcgrane, the CO of the new squadron" The captain was a typical US American with blonde hair and blue eyes, along with not-so-well shaved chin. The others then introduced themselves. The first was a dark skinned man with black hair and a strong Hindi accent (India), his name was Pabu Bitan. The next man was mostly pale and seemed to be standing a little straighter in posture than most of the other guys, Seer and Shinji guessed he was British, and was proven correct when he told them that his name was Thomas Griffins, the young man also had brown hair and green eyes. The last guy had dirty blonde hair and dark blue eyes, along with a light German accent, this young man had the name Franz G. Jikenstein.   
  
As for the two women, the first was a brown haired, brown eyed, and fair skinned Latino girl, with an American accent and the name Isabella Gonzalez. The other girl seemed familiar to Shinji but he was unsure as to why, until he realized that she resembled Mana Kirishima with her black hair and green eyes, but unfortunately she was in fact a different person, her name was Jessie Ayuko from the United States and partially from Japan.  
  
They then sat down at a table and ordered some drinks, they were now sure that they were all 17 except for Charlie. They didn't really talk about anything in specific but soon they were given their new dorms and their new planes, by Charlie, and were ordered to show up at 0800 sharp. The group decided to call it a night and went to their new rooms, the squadron had a large dorm but it would feel crowded very soon…because the entire squadron, minus the CO, was stationed to sleep in the same dorm. There was a bed for everyone and none of them were bunk beds, they were simply lined up on the far side of the entrance to the dorm. There was nothing else, any other extra details were up to the pilots themselves.  
  
******************************  
  
The next day, the entire group woke up refreshed and on time. After preparing themselves they set out to look for the hangar where their planes were being held at the moment. After they found the hangar they entered to find brand new planes waiting to be tested and used. Seer quickly looked around for his F-16 along with Shinji, theirs were both placed beside each other. Pabu's plane was a new F-14 B type that seemed to be much faster and have much better weaponry than its predecessor. Jessie a new Mig-38 with two large thrusters for propulsion and a large belly for bombs and drop missiles. Thomas received a simple Harrier but it was customized with better maneuverability and more gun ammo. Isabella got a F-18 D type and Franz received the F-22.   
  
The abilities and advantages of the planes were so different that it was a surprise that they were going to work in the same squadron…these thoughts went through Seer and Shinji's head as they gave it some thought. Charlie soon came in and greeted the other pilots warmly, he then went over to check his own plane, an old F-15 but it still seemed to be in good shape although it also seemed to have seen a large amount of battles. "Fall in!" Charlie suddenly called out as all of the pilots came and stood in front of Charlie at attention. "Our first mission has been given to us, I'll be briefing you in on this mission…Our Intel's has given us a heads up on a group of Eurasian fighters heading towards one of the cities under our protection. We are going to take our planes and meet them before they get to the city, at this moment the city should be under complete evacuation by the time we get there, so there's no worry about any civilian casualty should the mission fail"  
  
Shinji let out a light sigh of relief at this but kept his posture so it went unnoticed. "These planes are ready for take off with weaponry and fuel, but we still need to know our code name for the squadron and for each individual" Charlie continued and then he began to pace back and forth in front of the squadron of pilots. "Our Squadron's name has been decided as the 'Dragon' squadron…the individual codenames will be decided after today's sortie based on each of your performances…get to your ships and good luck"  
  
After being dismissed all pilots quickly ran over to their planes and began to taxi out of the hangar and into the runway. There, Seer took off first followed by Shinji and then Jessie with the two F-16s and the Mig-38. They received a transmission from Charlie as soon as he took off "Shinji and Seer will be wingmen to each other from here on out until someone says otherwise, same with me and Jessie, Pabu and Thomas will work together while Franz and Isabella work together, now once you have your wingman beside you, head towards the C Sector…area 12"  
  
"Area 12!? That's a residential area!" Thomas suddenly yelled over the radio, to which Charlie answered "Affirmative, area 12 is a residential area…and 10 fighter planes are heading that way, radar also found 20 more fighter planes heading that way, probably to back the first line of planes. We'll have reinforcements as well but they'll show a little while after the second group of planes show up, they'll include AA guns and AA missiles along with other squadrons, so until then we'll have to hold out until help arrives…now take your wingmen and fly to that location…over and out"  
  
Seer gave a nod towards the radio and then looked behind him as he called through the radio "Shinji! I'll take the lead…you follow my lead, and try to cover for me!" Seer then waited for a response before Shinji answered "Affirmative, lets go in from the west, the Eurasians won't expect it" Seer nodded towards the radio and the visual screen that showed Shinji's face with a mask and a pilot helmet on "Good idea! Let's try it out, remember follow me…over and out"   
  
Seer immediately began to set the angles in order to be able to curve into the left side of area 12. Shinji followed Seer closely and continued to make his own adjustments. Jessie and Charlie were the first to reach area 12, and were just in time as they met the first 10 planes. As soon as they began to engage, Seer and Shinji reached area 12 as well.   
  
Seer immediately lowered his aircrafts speed from cruising to a relatively good dog-fighting speed. Shinji followed suit but had to break off after a group of Eurasian fighters came in as a group. Shinji kept one eye on Seer and vice versa. "This is Seer, I have a radar lock, give me a second……Fox 2! Fox 2!" Shinji quickly turned his eyes over to Seer's F-16 and saw another plane near the F-16 explode "This is Shinji! Confirmed kill for Seer!" Shinji yelled out as he suddenly banked to the right in order to get out of a Eurasian plane's range of fire.   
  
Jessie then gave a call out "This is Jessie! I have 3 bogies on my tail…I can't shake them off!" Shinji immediately banked his aircraft towards Jessie's location and eyed the 3 planes following the lone Mig-38. "Hang on Jessie, help is on the way!" Shinji did a barrel roll in order to get in a reasonably good angle behind the three bogies. Shinji immediately locked on to one of the enemy planes "Ikari! Radar lock! Fox 2!" A missile was sent from Shinji's F-16 and blew one of the enemy planes from the sky. "Confirmed kill for Shinji" Seer said over the radio. "Firing on the next target!" Shinji yelled out again and began to fire bullets on the enemy plane that had opened itself up while following Jessie. That plane exploded after a few bullets hit the fuselage near the engine "Another confirmed kill for Shinji" Seer yelled out and then continued "Radar lock, Fox 2!" soon after the last plane following Jessie was blown out of the sky as well. "This is Shinji, confirmed kill for Seer".   
  
"Thanks guys, I needed that help" Jessie said through the radio as she went back to piloting her Mig-38 against the enemy planes. "This is Thomas and Pabu we have arrived at area 12" a visual with a voice said on everyone's radio. "Isabella and Franz are also here, we miss anything?" said the next as Charlie's face came on screen and answered "Negative, just take your positions and find the closest enemy to you, then blast them"   
  
Thomas and Pabu took the northern part of area 12 while Isabella and Franz took care of the Eastern side. The rest of the planes soon fell easily, then the reinforcements for the other planes arrived, and the difficulty of the mission enhanced. Charlie soon called over the radio, "All Dragon fighters, keep with your wingmen and head towards the enemy planes, we have to try to keep them from the city until our reinforcement arrives" When that call came through all planes broke out from their assigned zones and moved towards the threat of enemy planes.  
  
"Shinji! How you holdin up buddy?" Seer called over the radio, "I could be better…but I guess I'll make it" Shinji answered with a not-too-sure voice. "Take it easy, you lead this time, you'll have to prove that you can actually deserve a promotion" Seer said again, Shinji sighed and called back "You make it sound so easy…oh well, here goes!" Shinji immediately increased the speed so that he could get passed Seer's plane and lead them into the battle that was about to commence. Shinji soon flew past Seer and began to take the lead in their attack against the Eurasian planes.   
  
"Take your time Shinji, just find a good spot to attack and then go for it, you hear?" Shinji nodded to Seers comment and the video screen closed again. Shinji then looked towards the geometric shapes that the twenty Eurasian planes were making. They were all in the form of a V…each with a lead pilot and four other followers, so there were 4 different squadrons. Shinji suddenly made a dive towards one of the squadrons and began to fire his guns with precision and good aim. 2 planes exploded after being hit enough and the other three took some damage and slowed down. Seer followed suit and destroyed the rest of the planes. The two confirmed each others kills and went to the next squadron.  
  
"That was good aiming Shinji, I hope it wasn't just a fluke…for your sake" Jessie suddenly said over the radio, Shinji then did another dive towards another squadron of enemy planes and did the same, this time destroying 3 planes and making a total of 7 kills. "Shinji, you keep this up, your gonna leave me behind…and we both know we can't have that" Seer said suddenly as the remaining two planes from the squadron that Shinji attacked suddenly explode because of missile contact. Shinji smirked and looked over to Seer's plane "And if you keep using missiles, you'll never be as good at using this thing as I am" Seer recoiled his head at the light comment and then answered "Yeah we'll see, after all, my kill record so far is 6, don't worry I won't leave you too far behind"  
  
Seer then increased his F-16's speed and flew towards the another squadron, now they were dispersed and were actually trying to fight back. Seer came across two and flew behind them, Seer destroyed one easily with a simple hit to the planes engines, but then the other one did a quick summersault, hoping to catch Seer of guard but to know avail as Seer turned to the right and did a 'horizontal' summersault. Thus, the enemy plane finished the summersault, it found that Seer was not in front but still behind him and then the Eurasian was blown out of the sky "Shinji here, two confirmed kills for Seer…and don't get cocky about it"   
  
Seer answered in a confused voice "Why would I get cocky, did the battle end?" Shinji chuckled "Actually…yeah. The reinforcements are here, the rest of the Eurasian planes were crashed by the AA guns and SAMs" Seer sighed "Aww, Damn! I thought we could at least get a few more kills than this"  
  
Thomas came over the radio suddenly "Stop complaining, you guys are very close to getting your ace wings, while the rest of us have maybe 4 or 5 kills" Seer laughed along with Shinji, and then Seer answered "Sorry about that, I just wanted to see if I could make ace on the first mission…oh well, no ones perfect……just really, really good" Charlie suddenly came into the radio "All right, all right…we get it, you did real good today, and so did everyone else…now lets head home…we need to beat Seer and Shinji up for making the rest of us look bad" Seer and Shinji were quiet once that statement ended, then Seer spoke using a good impression of James Kirk from Star Trek "Warp Speed! Mister Ikari!" Then the two F-16s switched their afterburners to full power in order to fly away from the rest of the pilots. And this is how the Dragon squadron was made and soon they would fight the Eurasian planes in the next few battles that would come. Seer and Shinji felt and knew that they would be like brothers the whole way and Shinji secretly hoped that when the war was over, he would be allowed to go home to Tokyo-3 where his family lived.  
  
************************************************************************  
  
I realize that it may not be very well detailed and am sorry about that. But I haven't written very many air battles…much less with squadrons against other squadrons, and I am sorry if some of the things I write seem pretty much…fake and out of character at times if it happens but it's the way I think the story will look good. Anyways that's all I have to say…other than…*Clears throat*…Please review.  
  
Thanks a bunch, Hawk Strife  
  
PS. If anyone knows the story or Mana Kirishima or where to find out the story OR where to purchase or download the game, please e-mail me, it's important I know the story of Mana before or while I continue this. 


	2. Aces Made

I thank the people that have reviewed so far and am also thankful for the info that they gave me about Mana. Well, I'm just gonna continue the story now, keep those reviews coming in please.  
  
Aces Made  
  
Shinji and Seer made it home just fine but weren't able to keep away from the rest of the squadron for too long. After a little while of tackling Shinji and Seer down to the ground they began to tally up their present kill record on a wall in their dorm. Thomas: 4, Pabu: 5, Jessie: 7, Isabella: 5, Franz: 4, Shinji: 7, Seer: 8. Shinji was surprised to hear that Jessie had a total of 7 kills just like him.  
  
Shinji and Seer were able to know each of their personalities now that they had returned from the battle. Jessie seemed to be happy most of the time and had so much energy. Isabella was straightforward and to the point, but she would joke around from time to time. Pabu was quiet just like Shinji but he tried to start or continue in a conversation as much as he could. Franz and Thomas were the most outspoken and were probably the best educated, they each tried to outwit the other but to no avail.  
  
"Excuse me, Seer isn't it…where are you from?" Thomas asked Seer all of a sudden, to which Seer answered "Oh, I'm from the States but I also lived in Japan for a little while" Thomas nodded and then gave a look of deep thought "I've never heard a name like that before, do you know where it's from?" Seer shook his head and then answered with a smile "No, I just know that my father gave it to me before he passed away, my mother never knew where it was from either"  
  
After that there was a deep silence, there wasn't very much to talk about so they started to talk about the past. Franz was the first "2nd Impact and the 3rd are things of the past now, aren't they…I hope it stays that way" Seer nodded while Isabella continued "I lost most of my family after the 2nd impact, my only living relative was my 'abuela' (grandmother) but that was it"   
  
There was another deep silence before Jessie spoke up "Does anyone remember what happened during 3rd impact?" There was another silence as everyone began to give some thought except for Shinji. Then Pabu spoke up "I think I was pulled into the air with a sudden force, although not physically but I guess you could say mentally or spiritually" Thomas nodded "I think I can connect with what Pabu is saying, I felt that way too when it happened, then I can remember that I saw a gigantic pale woman that seemed to be carrying a flow of red dots towards a large black…sphere"  
  
"Then, suddenly the dots spread out and floated around the earth for a while before coming back down, that's all I can remember" Seer said all of a sudden with a look of contemplation while everyone else was just confused. Jessie spoke up "That might be what happened but all I remember is waking up on a beach after all the stuff that everyone else said, I don't remember falling to the ocean or the ground" Everyone else but Shinji and Seer nodded.  
  
Shinji then spoke up "I'd rather not talk about this, I still haven't met a few friends that might still be dead today" Jessie looked confused and asked "Why haven't you gone to check yet?" Shinji immediately shrugged and continued "Maybe because I was afraid some of the people might still be dead, or maybe I just wanted to grow up first…I don't know". "I'd say you've grown up enough, I mean you are fighting in a war after all…it can't really be helped" This came from Thomas, he was standing up with a serious look on his face. He then continued "There's only one other thing you could do before you get back……become a hero of this war…if you believe in that sort of thing"  
  
Shinji chuckled and nodded "Well if that's all I can do…why not?" Seer laughed "I'm sure all of us are looking for the chance to become a hero, but I at least know that we need to get our ace wings first, all of us" Isabella then spoke with a sudden burst of inspiration "We also need to man our own squadrons, then we've proven just how good we are". The entire Dragon squadron was pretty pumped up by the thought of being heroes and fighting as a leader and an ace.   
  
"Fall in!" Was suddenly yelled out as Charlie entered the dorm "Sorry people, but we don't have time for a break, we have a new mission, we're going to destroy an enemy radar station, I don't need to tell you that this war is in a crisis. Our soldiers are in a full retreat and they are moving towards a rendezvous point but if the radar spots them…their done for. We need to destroy that radar station before the soldiers move towards their spot. We need to try to focus on the radars more than the planes so that we can finish the mission quickly before reinforcements are sent. Now then, we have your call signs right now, you will use your call sign and add your squadron codename at the end of it. I have the call sign Grey, so at the moment my full call sign is Grey Dragon. Thomas, you were spotted barely skimming the surface of the ocean, thus your call sign is Skimmer. Isabella, you flew tight patterns during the battle, your call sign is Wind. Pabu you kept your plane in the sky and kept a good look out, your call sign is Sky. Franz, you were able to use your harrier to the fullest, your call sign is Hover. Jessie, you took your plane and shot down a score the same as Shinji, your call sign is Mirror. Shinji you took many of your shots from backing a fellow pilot, your call sign is Knight. And Seer, you have the most kills thus far, your call sign is Blood. That is all, now get to your planes, remember your call signs, and get ready for some action…Dismissed!"  
  
Now that each pilot had their own call sign they were at less of a risk of being found out by spies and such as people from another squadron usually knew pilots from their codenames and nothing else, if not then a pilot would be assassinated easily by a spy. Although pilots with high rankings and high kill rates are usually well known but not always by name or looks, only by the code name. And now that each of them had that, they could call themselves a part of an ISAF squadron fighting in the war.  
  
Each pilot from the Dragon Squadron was soon in the air along with another squadron, this squadron was the Raven squadron, a squadron that consisted of only F-18's. Charlie called in "Raven Squadron, this is Grey Dragon…were on standby…what's our heading and altitude?" There was an immediate response from the leader of the Raven Squadron. "Grey Dragon this is Time Raven…our heading is due West 120 at 15000 altitude, take the speed up to cruising speed before afterburners…that is all" Charlie quickly flew his plane into position and began to slowly rise the speed and altitude, all the other planes did the same.   
  
"Grey Dragon this is Time Raven…just so you know this flight will probably take about an hour, there'll be a airplane carrier near the shore from our objectives, we'll land there at the end of the mission…you copy?" Charlie responded immediately "Affirmative Time Raven, we copy" "So, Charlie, who're your star fighter pilots?" Another Raven pilot called through as Charlie answered "Blood and Knight, they have 8 and 7 kills respectively and only from the first mission" "Hmm, not bad, not bad…they should be able to get their ace wings today if they cover for the other planes today"  
  
"They will, their the F-16s in the Dragon Squadron, their the best along with the F-18 for dog fighting" Charlie answered with a relaxed tone "Gee Charlie, I didn't know you felt that way" Seer said over the radio suddenly. "Yeah, well don't tell anyone, that goes for Raven squadron too…by the way Seer, make sure you get your ace wings today, you too Shinji" Shinji nodded and then replied roger, I might even beat Seer"  
  
"Oh, I highly doubt that" Seer said suddenly over the radio. The rest of the trip continued in moderate silence, there were sometimes a few bits of conversation here and there but mostly quiet. Then, the two squadrons finally made it to their destination "All right everyone listen up" Time Raven suddenly called out "We should all have about ¾ of our fuel still in the tanks, keep one eye on the fuselage, head towards the carrier when you got only ¼ left in the tank. Try not to over due it, the planes that are responsible for cover stay there unless told so by their CO, all right then…move out!"   
  
All of the Dragon Squadron except for Pabu lowered their altitude; Shinji, Seer, Isabella and a few from Raven squadron stopped around 9000 ft while the rest began to attack the facilities. Then Charlie called through the radio "This is Grey Dragon, we cannot pay attention to the cover, Blood Dragon, I want you to lead that group during the fight, don't let us down" After that Charlie signed off without enough time for Seer to complain. "Well Blood, what do you want us to do?" It was an F-18 from Raven squadron who got his attention, Seer snapped out of it and tried to focus "Cover force call in!" Soon the planes that would take on the enemy planes each called in individually.  
  
"Knight Dragon, ready"  
  
"Wind Dragon, ready"  
  
"White Raven, ready"  
  
"Tear Raven, ready"  
  
"Ground Raven, ready"  
  
Seer nodded and then called out "Blood Dragon here, Knight Dragon is with me, Tear and White will partner up and Wind Dragon will go with Ground Raven…All right now…lower your altitude by 1500 and keep it steady, we'll split up with our partners and take care of any enemy planes in the area, be sure to keep your eyes on any AA guns that exist and be careful…over and out"  
  
Seer and Shinji quickly turned to their left while White and Tear kept going straight and Isabella with Ground went to the right. Seer and Shinji met up with 7 Eurasian F-14s, that quickly split up and tried to cover the two F-16s. "All right Knight, let's get our ace wings today!" Seer and Shinji then split up suddenly and headed towards the enemy planes that were on their side. Seer and Shinji quickly aimed and fired two missiles at two different enemies and got their two kills and confirmed them. Seer quickly banked to his left and tried to get the other one in his sights but the enemy quickly moved away. Shinji on the other hand was able to shoot another one down and had it confirmed by Seer, before the other enemy plane also began to move away. "These guys are just too easy!" Shinji yelled out as he quickly adjusted his angle and got behind the enemy plane. Shinji quickly shot it down after a few bullets hit the engine and got that kill confirmed by Seer. Shinji turned just in time to confirm another kill for Seer.  
  
"Looks like were even now, Blood" Seer nodded and answered "Well, Knight, I think we have enough time for one more kill, lets see who gets to it first, shall we?" Seer and Shinji immediately turned their planes towards the rest of the action and moved in at full throttle. "Where were you guys, I couldn't see you at all?" Pabu suddenly called out from the sky "Sorry Sky, we were at the 21st area, its under a cloud at the moment…but we've confirmed a total of 11 kills for each of us" Sky quickly replied "Well there's a lone fighter that's been working circles around the other F-18s, you guys could definitely help them out" Seer nodded his head and answered "Roger just point us in the right location"   
  
After getting the location Shinji and Seer sped towards the spot where the lone plane was causing trouble. "It's an F-15 type A, but the pilot is pretty good, it is definitely an ace, everyone else is being pretty cautious, don't get yourselves killed now, you hear?" Shinji chuckled and nodded. Soon enough, the said F-15 was spotted and they could see the other planes flying around trying to get a few hits in but to no avail. "Blood, Knight, this guy can dodge missiles pretty well, it's all on the guns I guess" It was Isabella and Seer quickly answered "Well, lets not blame a guy for trying" He then aimed, locked on, and fired. The missile sped towards the F-15, before the plane suddenly nose dived and turned towards Seer.  
  
"Wow! This pilot is good…all right then…guns it is" Seer immediately banked to the right and flew around the F-15. When Seer was right behind the F-15, it nose dived again with sudden speed, and Seer followed it. Seer tried to get as close as he could with his plane before he opened fire. There were a few hits but with minimum damage. "Hang on, Blood, I'll try to distract him" Shinji then dived again and sped right passed the F-15's nose, the speed of the F-16 pulled the F-15 to the direction that Shinji flew in, it was enough for Seer when he opened fire and destroyed the F-15. "Sky Dragon here, confirmed kill for Blood Dragon"   
  
************************************************************************  
  
That plane was the last one flying, and the rest of the team finished their mission pretty quickly as well. "Hey Shinji!" Seer called out as he ran towards his friend "Thanks for the help there buddy, couldn't have done it without ya!" Shinji smiled and shook his head "Yes you could've I just made it happen quicker" Seer laughed "Well, at least we made ace, now we can get our ace wings" Shinji smiled and laughed along with Seer.   
  
"Shinji! Seer! Fall in!" Seer and Shinji quickly stood in front of Charlie at attention, then another person came in front of them. "I'm John Yelts, call sign Time Raven…that was some fancy flying you two did, and I'm happy to give you your wings and recommend for promotion and your own squadron. Shinij and Seer couldn't help but smile at this thought. Then they received the ace wings from their CO and were congratulated on a job well done, so far they were the only ones in the squadron, other than Charlie, to become an ace, Jessie was close with 10 because she attacked a few planes near the radar stations.  
  
A new mission would soon begin, but for now the entire squadron would rest on the air carrier and take a long well deserved rest.  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
Ok, now I see I have two reviews which is good. But I ask for a few other reviews please. That's all I really want to say, the next chapter should be up by next week……I hope.  
  
Thanks a bunch  
  
Hawk Strife 


	3. The Artillery Coast

Ok time to continue this story, thanks for the reviews by the way. They make me want to write even more, and I'll try to make the chapters longer than before but I can't promise anything so, sorry. Oh well, since people tell me my battles are pretty explicit I better keep up the more or less good work. Now then about Mana as the female main character...all in good time my friends all in good time...she'll show and she'll be connected to the present storyline soon, so don't worry. Oh and about Shinji, it is to my belief that the identity of the pilots of Evangelion were known only in (1) All of Tokyo-3 (Couldn't be helped) (2) All of Nerv and (3) high spots of some other organizations thanks to spying and infiltration (Kaji, Mana, etc.) As for the rest of the world, that information must have been kept highly confidential. What sense would it make if the people knew the pilots, it might have brought them heroism but also some assassination attempts from organizations against the war (Don't ask me, but there were bound to be some in existence). And finally, Even though some people of the army and Seele knew, they only heard it as a rumor and were asking Gendo to confirm it...I'm pretty sure that's what happened near the beginning of the series. Ok now that the explanation is out of the way (I hope it helped some of you) its time to continue the story.  
  
The Artillery Coast  
  
The entire Dragon Squadron was sitting in a room alongside of the Raven squadron waiting for their briefing to commence. One week after the last mission, they were now about to start a new mission. Shinji and Seer were the respected aces now and they were close to getting a new promotion and their own squadrons. Both of them smiled at the thought continuously and knew that they would be trying even harder than before in order to get that rank.  
  
Finally, three men entered the room as soon as the lights dimmed. They were Charlie, John, and one other person. There was in fact one other squadron in the room that neither the Raven squadron nor the Dragon squadron had met before. They were the Raptor squadron, consisting only of F-22's. Their CO was Greinhurst Jaxen.  
  
"Morning everyone" Charlie said and then continued "We have been given a new and incredibly important mission right now; we are going assist many other squadrons while we try to take over a relatively small island. We need to use this island for a mission later on in the future. There are soldiers being sent on small boats towards the location, but the entire coast is infested with artillery fire and anti aircraft weaponry, making landings by air or sea close to impossible"  
  
John then walked up and spoke "There will be other squadrons all over the coast all around the island and they will be doing the same as us...destroying all of the artillery and all of the anti aircraft weaponry. Unfortunately, there are a large number of SAMs in the area, thus using bombing raids and such will be a bad idea. Our decision is that all of the fighters should try to prioritize an attack on the ground forces, as for the air resistance that we'll encounter...don't worry about them until one is right behind you"  
  
Greinhurst finally spoke up at last "Teamwork and wingmen-ship will be most important now. There are 8 pilots in the Dragon Squadron, 7 pilots in the Raven squadron, and 9 pilots in the Raptor squadron, making a total of 24 planes...we will have 6 squadrons with 4 planes in each of them. We'll give you the pilots that are grouped together when we get into the air...is that clear?"  
  
After seeing that there were no looks of doubt or any other questions in the air, he dismissed the group of pilots and sent them to their planes. Every plane made it into the air with no problems whatsoever, and a full tank of fuel. The radio suddenly called out "This is Greinhurst, Dragon squadron will fall in with their own assigned wingmen...Next, Dust Raptor will join up with Blood Dragon and Knight Dragon...Tear Raven will also join the two same planes" After that was said one plane from both Raven and Raptor squadron, respectively, then flew towards Seer and Shinji.  
  
John then came on the radio once all the squadrons were assigned "Knight Dragon will lead his squadron...Grey Dragon will lead his squadron..." Shinji didn't listen to anything else, once he heard his call sign and the word lead in the same sentence time froze for him. "Knight! Hey, Knight!...It was going to happen anyways, this is a test to see whether or not you can lead a squadron into battle...come on man!" Seer kept trying to snap Shinji out of his present reverie before Shinji answered "This is Knight...f*squak* ... *ahem*. Fall into a Diamond formation, Blood Dragon will be behind me, and I want Tear Raven on the right...that leaves Dust Raptor right besides Tear Raven ... understood?"  
  
The planes quickly took their positions and then Charlie came over the radio "This is Grey Dragon, Knight Dragon's squadron will fly alongside of Mirror Dragon's squadron during the battle, don't mix up the squadrons try to keep to your squadrons and avoid confusion, but don't let another friendly plane take the fall easily" Shinji then began to edge his planes towards Jessie's group of planes, they were in the same formation.  
  
"M-m-mirror Dragon? This is Knight Dragon, we got your back" Shinji called through the radio feeling more than a little nervous. Jessie smiled to herself as she answered "Roger that 'shy boy', we appreciate the help" Shinji pulled his head back suddenly, he then thought 'no one's called me that since...' small pictures suddenly flashed through his mind, all of them containing Mana Kirishima in them.  
  
Shinji immediately shook his head 'that's in the past for now, at least until I return to Tokyo-3 or meet Mana again...if she's alive'. "Knight Dragon, this is Mirror Dragon...we're nearing the coast with all the artillery weapons, I see some SAM's and AA guns right behind them...do you copy?" Shinji shook his head and answered "Roger that, Mirror Dragon, I have a visual on the weaponry...you got a plan?"  
  
Jessie giggled "You better believe it...my team will take care of the SAM's and AA guns, you guys work on the Artillery...lets just keep to those jobs shall we?" Shinji was about to agree when he thought of something "Those SAM's and AA guns are mobile, meaning there are more of them in the center, and your job might not finish for a while...and enemy planes may become a factor later on. If planes arrive, we'll take care of them and you continue up with the SAM's and AA guns, if you've cleared them off, even for a short time start a bombing raid over the artillery fire"  
  
Jessie frowned suddenly and called through "What makes you think I have bombs?" Shinji chuckled "Your plane is moving more sluggish than it should, you must have quite a payload inside...why not use it yourself?" Jessie was silent and then gave off a nervous chuckle "It was just for a last resort, but back to the mission...if you are fighting planes then I'll bomb the rest of the artillery...I hope you get some before me"  
  
"Of course we will, how else are we going to get paid?" Seer suddenly said over the radio and then Charlie came through the radio "All right now...I'm happy your in high spirits, now be careful and just finish the ground forces if the skies are clear, if not then you'll should work hard during your dog fight...I know you've already decided on your positions so good luck and god speed...over and out.........OH! Crap I nearly forgot, we have another plane taking care of the confirming kills, it'll be our 'Sky Eye' in the E- 767, they'll also be our CO. Be sure to follow their orders"  
  
"This is Sky Eye, all squadrons confirmed and accounted for...planes are still on the ground, try to take out the Artillery while you're doing so...we'll be expecting some good fighting today so don't disappoint us" Shinji sighed at the last comment "Disappoint you? I still don't know what I'm doing in this plane" Seer laughed out loud "It's because I talked you into it!" Seer then continued to laugh, to which Shinji just sighed again in exasperation.  
  
"Hey Knight Dragon, this is Tear Raven, I got something weird on my radar, can you check it out?" Shinji immediately looked down to his radar as Tear's own radar screen downloaded on to Shinji's screen. "What the?" Shinji immediately explained as he looked at the radar "I...think...they're close to fifty SAM's moving towards the East" "Oh Damn it!! They're a patrol of SAM's the strongest ones around, and we get to fight them...whoopee" It was Dust Raptor who said that.  
  
"This is Mirror Dragon...don't worry we'll handle them...but I think you may have to think about something other than bombs on the artillery" "Affirmative Mirror Dragon, Sky Eye here, we'll accept the bombings of those SAM's, the other planes should take the SAM's close to the Artillery...message received, your all cleared to engage your targets and any dangers found, go to attack speed and good hunting"  
  
The planes immediately hit their after burners in order to cut the distance between them and the shoreline as soon as possible. "This is Tear Raven, I've got the SAM's on my scopes, and their moving towards us, repeat! The SAM's are moving South! Be alert for SAM's and their missile shots" Shinji took a deep breath and then led his squadron to the part where their location was assigned. "All planes under Knight, we're going to lower altitude and shoot with bullets only, we need to try and save our missiles, if we can focus on a group of targets all together then we can destroy our targets with little problem, keep your eyes open to see if you get into radar lock, if you do then you have to break off immediately and wait at point 221 for the rest of the squadron, clear?"  
  
Shinji waited for all the acceptances to this plan and then lowered his altitude. The rest of the planes followed, and began their attack. They were able to destroy 3 artillery weapons in one pass, they then moved around and lowered their altitude for the next pass. They destroyed 4 other artillery weapons easily; it seemed as if the mission would be a breeze. "Sky Eye, this is Knight Dragon, how many artillery weapons are found in our area?"  
  
"Sky Eye here, we've counted 24 still functional artillery weapons, but we've also got enemy planes on our long-range radar coming in at top-speed. They'll be in your position in about 5 minutes, try to destroy as many of the ground artillery as possible and then attack the planes, when we tell you that they've reached your position" "Roger that Sky Eye, keep us posted" Shinji called in as his squadron went in for another pass.  
  
Then suddenly Tear Raven's and Dust Raptor's HUD's began to flash red. They both pulled out quickly and left Seer and Shinji to become the next targets...they were made targets but not before 2 more artillery weapons were destroyed then they pulled out. "This is Blood Dragon, Mirror Dragon we've got company SAM's on the hill in your sector...what's up!?" There was no answer as Blood Dragon called for Jessie again but still there was not answer. "This is Sky Eye, report in, Mirror Dragon......What's happened to Mirror Dragon, does the rest of the squadron know?"  
  
Pabu suddenly answered "Sorry, I'll raise altitude and check around" Shinji and Seer waited at the rendezvous for the answer from Pabu. "This is Sky, I see were Mirror is, she's been downed near a large number of destroyed SAM's, probably from her bombs...her plane is completely intact though, and I think I see life inside the cockpit. Can we send a rescue team?"  
  
"Affirmative, but we'll need an escort for the chopper, by the time it reaches Mirror Dragon's position, the planes we'll be there for sure" Sky Eye answered with a serious voice and Shinji immediately answered "This is Knight, I'll handle escort with the chopper" "Dust Raven will help out with the escort as well"  
  
"Agreed, Knight, Dust head over to the carrier and wait for the chopper to take off, Blood Dragon you lead the squadron now, Sky you lead yours" Seer nodded and flew his plane in front of Tear Raven's and lowered his altitude. "Tear, take aiming into greater consideration now, and be careful try to hold out as long as possible if you get locked on"  
  
"Blood hold on, I have some bombs, they were for a last resort like Mirror, but now we should use them...do you agree?" "Tear you better start on that bombing run I'll take care of the SAM's and AA guns near your bombing run, make every bomb count" Tear immediately gained a little more altitude while Seer lowered his own altitude. Seer spotted 3 SAM's mounted on a hill with a perfect view and a perfect target. "Here goes nothing, firing on a SAM" "Confirmed, 3 SAM's destroyed by Blood Dragon...good shooting"  
  
"This is Tear my bombing run is finished and the artillery is devastated...there are only 4 or 5 artillery left functioning, this area can be named clear after we finish the rest of the artillery" Sky Eye called in immediately "You don't have time, the planes have reached your position from the north, break off from the artillery and prepare for a dogfight...6 enemy aircraft, I think 2 of them are choppers...Their heading towards Mirror Dragon's downed position!"  
  
"This is Blood Dragon, me and Tear will head out to Mirror Dragon and take care of those choppers" "Blood Dragon, you are cleared to go, but be warned, there are still a number of SAM's in the area that are scattered around and damaged but still functional enough to attack...but the rescue team is out and heading your way, hold off the enemy and clear the SAM's for about 2 minutes...after the choppers are downed focus on the SAM's and stay low, they can't hit you if your low enough"  
  
"I read, Tear! Follow me and try not to pull up, you get me?" Seer then hit his afterburners and flew towards Jessie's present location. They found her MiG-38 planted on the ground with little damage to anything other than her right wing, the spot where it landed on. There was no smoke coming from the plane, thus there was no danger of the sudden explosion of Jessie's plane. "Tear, follow me make sure you're at least 1500 feet, that'll be enough to stay out of radar contact, while we destroy the SAM's and the choppers"  
  
"Roger that Blood, I'll follow your lead" Seer then leveled his plane at around 1000 feet and quickly began to bank to the right and the left while he fired on the SAM's...Tear did the same and was able to finish off the damage done by Seer. "This is Seer, I've got a tallyho on the choppers, their 1 military chopper and another pickup chopper, Tear lock onto the pickup chopper, I'll handle the military one" Tear then moved to an angle suitable for shooting at the pickup chopper.  
  
"Radar lock on the chopper, Fox 2!" "Sky Eye, chopper downed by Tear Raven, chopper downed by Blood Dragon, warning, planes coming in from above, and the rescue team is here, they've been armed with bombs be ready to raise altitude" "Blood Dragon here, Tear, follow my lead and stay below the correct altitude, get ready to pull out"  
  
"Blood! We can't stay! The planes are here and they're locking on to me!" Tear was trying to lose his predator by banking right and left, Blood also moved around but was stopped by another enemy plane. "Tear, do not pull up, I repeat do not pull up...I'm trying to get there, but I've run into another plane, hang on"  
  
"Blood! I can't shake him, I gotta pull up, damn it! This guy is too fast for me!" Indeed the pilot behind Tear was fast and very skilled, he must have been an ace, then Tear pulled up. "Damn it! Tear, get ready to eject the minute you get a missile right on your tail, you hear me!?" Tear nodded as he piloted his F-18 through the air, and then suddenly got a locked on signal. Tear immediately began to move around evasively but it was no use, there was more than one SAM locked on to Tear. Then, a missile was launched and Tear ejected as soon as he got signal of it.  
  
"Sorry about that Blood Dragon. I had no choice" Tear said over his radio towards Seer as his parachute lowered him to the ground. Seer sighed in relief and called back "It's not a problem just go and wait for the pickup by Jessie's aircraft, check on her to make sure she's ok" Seer immediately banked to the left and got the ace in his sights. "I got business to take care off right here, right now!" Seer immediately sped his aircraft up even more in order to reach the ace pilot, as soon as the ace saw Seer following behind him, he also began to fly around.  
  
Unfortunately for Seer, the ace could fly higher into the air without worry of being shot down. "Hang on Blood! I'm comin!" It was Shinji and Dust Raptor coming at full speed. "Sky Eye, this is Knight Dragon, requesting immediate bombardment of the specified areas"  
  
"This is Sky Eye, request is approved but keep to the outskirts of the entire field" "Roger that, Sky Eye, bombardment has commenced. Dust, take the opposite flight path as me and begin your bombardment, that should make things easier for Blood Dragon" "Roger that Knight Dragon, I'm on my way"  
  
"This is chopper Raid, were coming in for the pickup, hold that fighter off for just a little while longer" Seer nodded and began to feel the sweat build up on his brow. He kept his eyes on the sky and looked the ace that was flying around continuously. Seer had to shoot down that plane but he also had to protect Jessie's downed aircraft. "This is Tear, I've made it to the crash site...Jessie is just fine, there are no major injuries and no broken bones, but she's stuck under the cockpit, I'm gonna try to get her out"  
  
"Good luck Tear, I'll keep you guys protected" Seer then looked up at the ace and lowered his voice "somehow". The Ace then suddenly dived and charged towards Seer, Seer banked towards the opposite direction, and hit the afterburners at full throttle. "Blood Dragon, this is Knight, the bombardment is finished on the outer edges around the crash site and most of the center is clear, you are clear to raise altitude in the designated sectors sent". Seer sighed in relief as the information downloaded, when he got the closest spot that was now clear, he flew towards it at a low altitude.  
  
It was possible that the ace did not know that the position was clear, but more likely than not, it was looking for a challenge and wanted to fight on fair territory. As soon as Seer reached the clear spot, he pulled up and flew along the edges of the clear area until his plane was facing the enemy plane. They were both F-16's, and obviously both had their ace wings, although one had them for a while now, and the other just got them.  
  
"Blood, this is Knight, the chopper has reached the crash site, but other enemy planes have arrived...that ace is yours until we can take out all the planes...God speed my friend" Seer smirked as he answered "Thanks for the info, and for the luck...I won't let you down" Then the two planes charged at each other by hitting their afterburners. They both moved apart at the very last second, but the ace was lucky and flew a complete U turn with no problems. Thus, Seer was being followed by an Ace, and didn't have many bullets on him.  
  
Seer then flew his plane near the ground, and the ace followed skillfully and with incredible ease. Seer suddenly pulled up and tried to do a summersault, hoping to catch the enemy off guard, but it didn't work. As soon as Seer pulled up, the enemy pulled up as well and followed Seer through the summersault. Seer was still in trouble, but he decided to bank to the right and then the left continuously.  
  
Seer then did another summersault but this time, halfway through, he turned his F-16 and pulled up to do another summersault. The ace didn't expect it, and Seer was finally behind the ace once he finished the second summersault. Seer pushed down on the nose and once he was level he right the aircraft with a roll. The ace quickly banked to the right as Seer tried to lock on with his missiles. The ace was moving too fast for a lock on missile, so Seer tried to use his guns and what was left of the bullets.  
  
Through anticipation and sheer luck, Seer fired and hit the ace's only engine. The engine was on afterburner but now the flames died out, although there was some thrust coming from the engine. The ace then banked to the left in order to catch Seer off guard, but instead Seer finished the rest of his bullets and struck the aces engine once again.  
  
The plane was beginning to slow down considerably, Seer was finally able to lock on with a missile. "Blood Dragon, radar lock......Fox 2!" The missile was launched and struck its target dead on. "Sky Eye here, good shooting Blood Dragon. Skies are clear of the enemy, and the coasts on all sides have lost their artillery, the soldiers are on their way to take over the base, you are all cleared for RTB, take a long rest you've all earned it"  
  
******************************************  
  
After all the squadrons had landed, along with the chopper carrying survivors, there was a big cheer coming from the crewmembers of the entire ship. Charlie came up to Seer and Shinji, "You've done very well, and this will be sent to the commissioners, I'll make sure you get your own squadrons if it's the last thing I do, and you should get some missions partnering you up" Seer and Shinji chuckled and then sighed, then Charlie continued "Until then, however, you will both get a long rest, maybe a month, what do you think?"  
  
"FINALLY!!!" Seer yelled out suddenly, Shinji smirked and nodded "We really need it" Charlie laughed and nodded, "We'll send you to some air force barrack somewhere in Tokyo-3, you should get some relaxation there" Shinji's world stopped right there and then he knelt to the ground, causing Charlie and Seer to wonder although Seer really did know. "Shinji are you ok? Listen even though you're going to see some old friends, and you may wonder if their even alive, you have to face it and move on, you can't do this to yourself, besides I'm goin with you. I don't think there'll be much of a problem, right?"  
  
"Well if that's the problem, then Seer is right...besides you'll have a few days to give it some thought, and then you'll fly towards Tokyo-3...we'll keep you updated on the war.........I just wonder why Tokyo-3 was made as the top decision" Charlie continued to wonder on the last thing as he walked away from the two friends. Shinji smiled "I might see Misato, Asuka, Rei, my mom even...I might even find Mana........." Shinji suddenly began to give some thought to the last thing and began to smil even more, then he suddenly ran down into the ship and began to look for something.  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
What is Shinji looking for? Is everyone that Shinji cares about still alive and waiting for Shinji's return? And how about that promotion? Well, I'll write about most of these things in the next chapter. As for the rest of his friends, I'll explain what's happened to them too. C ya later Hawk Strife 


	4. City under War

Ok first, what difference does it make if I am American, I live in Mexico meaning I am able to see how many US Americans are in fact arrogant. But still, it is the country I was born in and I won't go around telling it how f**ked up it may be, unlike some people I know. Second, ISAF is not the United States Air Force, theirs would be USAF. ISAF is more like a UN type of Air Force. Hence the International States Air Force. Thirdly, this war is based mostly on another video game called Ace Combat 4, the Eurasians are pretty much Russia China some of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and so on and so forth. They only started to win the war because they had Stonehenge, thus they may have had good planes but in reality they never needed these really good pilots in the first place. Most of the pilots were mediocre, with a few aces, but most of the aces are protecting Stonehenge. And I'll explain Stonehenge to the people who have not played Ace Combat 4 when the time comes, a'ight. What else? The language, I don't give a hoot on what you think these guys should speak, I don't care in the other fics and I don't care now, maybe some other people do care, but I'm not going to specify something, I am doing my best in making it seem as realistic as possible. And I warned you about the coincidences that might seem a little over the top. And now lastly, about Seer being better than Shinji in a plane...Quite frankly, Shinji isn't the war type kind a guy, but he was talked into joining the war by Seer. Seer IS the warring kind of guy. In short, Seer kills, Shinji protects. And from all the information I have on planes and their missions, protection missions will not always get you the largest number of kills, only rarely.  
  
OH god I hope you don't need any more explanation during this chapter. I'll explain all you want, but give it a lighter tone, or else I'll be angry while I write this fic and that won't do at all. *Sigh*  
  
City under War  
  
Shinji found what he was looking for below the decks, he found a computer completely alone in a secluded little room, it looked like a janitors closet but it was old. The computer however was on and had an e-mail program up, and there was a part of an e-mail typed in the box. Shinji decided to sit down and began to read the e-mail:  
  
Dear Friends,  
  
Our I think today will be our next mission, I hacked into our CO's log again and it says he has news of heading towards a stronghold of the enemy base. Everyone on the squad is doing great, Shinji is doing really good with that friend of his, Seer. You guys at Tokyo-3 have it lucky, and I know that we'll be going there once our leave has been initiated. We'l-  
  
"HEY!!" Shinji quickly stood up and turned around to see Jessie standing at the doorway with her arms crossed and a pout on her face. "Why did you go and look at that!?" She suddenly asked as Shinji smiled and laughed "Because I know that you're the one who fixed the leave towards Tokyo-3, its gotta be the semi-last choice on the list, and yet we get it. And I know your not exactly who you say to be......Shy boy gave it away, all the rest was simple mathematics" Jessie cringed at every point made "Damn it! And I thought I did a better job"  
  
Shinji smiled and then asked "So then......Who exactly are you? I know your not Mana and yet..." Jessie sighed and then giggled lightly as she looked into Shinji's face "I'm her sister and the e-mail is for her and all the people back in Tokyo-3...oh and I got that shy boy from Mana just so you know"  
  
Shinji's face had been smiling before but now it was simply glowing "You mean...s-s-she really is alive?" Jessie nodded and continued "She's waiting for you, which is why I changed the leave location to Tokyo-3, And you'll meet a few buddies on the way there" With that Jessie left Shinji in order to contemplate what she just said.  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
Shinji and Seer finally transferred to another ship heading to Tokyo-3 2 days after finding Jessie. Jessie, Thomas, and Tear Raven joined them. They finally found Tear Raven's name, he was Glenn Shotz, he was from the states and had his hair died dark green in order to match his eyes.  
  
Thus this group now only had to wait for 4 more hours before they'd reach Tokyo-3. Shinji couldn't keep still while he was on deck "Damn Man! I can't keep still" Shinji kept grinning like an idiot as he jumped up and down. "If I didn't know any better...I'd say you put speed in that espresso you just took" Glenn said suddenly as he noticed just how high Shinji was actually jumping.  
  
Shinji stopped jumping for a minute and then went and pointed an accusing finger towards Seer who was just minding his own business. "Is that what you did to my espresso Seer!?!? You added a pill of Speed into my Coffee didn't you!?!?" Seer scoffed and shook his head "No I did not add a pill of Speed into your espresso!" Shinji sighed and then turned around, then Seer spoke again "I added two!"  
  
Seer was immediately running away from the energetic Shinji, while they were running Shinji would jump up and down sometimes since he couldn't really help it. It just went on for a while before a helicopter suddenly landed on the helipad out front. From it came two youths Shinji's age. A muscular and tanned boy with dark sunglasses and a baggy jumpsuit standing along side a skinny boy with round seeing glasses, pale skin and some freckles.  
  
"You can't be serious...it can't be" Shinji said to himself as he looked at the two guys who had come down from the helicopter. Shinji then started laughing and sprinted towards the two boys. When the two noticed Shinji running towards them they stared until Shinji stood in front of him taking deep breaths. Then the muscular one's eyes widened as he yelled out "I don't BELIEVE IT!!!!!" then the skinny one yelled out "Shinji! Man it's really you...ha HA!"  
  
"Touji, Kensuke...What are you two doing here!?" Shinji yelled out in his excitement. "We're in the Air force...proud fighters of an F-22 bomber and an Mi-2000 tactical fighter. What about you?" Shinji chuckled and answered "I got the F-16, I been working with a mixed group of planes...pretty good group if I do say so myself"  
  
"Made ace didn't you?" Kensuke said suddenly as he began to move towards a group of people sitting down on a few boxes under the only shadow to be seen. Shinji nodded and answered "Yup, along with a good friend of mine...what about you?" Touji laughed a heartfelt laugh "Got those ace wings easily" "Same with me" Kensuke continued with a wide smile.  
  
"Hey Shinji!" Seer yelled out from the shadow "Are you going to introduce us or what?" "Friend of yours?" Kensuke asked as he pushed his glasses back up to his nose making them shine brightly with the sun reflecting on the edges of his specs. Shinji nodded "Kensuke, Touji...this is Seer, Jessie, Glenn and Thomas"  
  
They said their hellos and then Shinji caught up with his two old friends. Touji had gone through the basic training for the F-22 plane, but they gave him a harsher training for a ground soldier. If there were a mission with ground forces near his station, he'd be either a ground soldier or the second in command unless an F-22 was needed.  
  
Kensuke made piloting and took some training as a computer specialist, it seems that he amazed a few of his teachers by showing how much he had learned just from hacking at home and at school. Of course, Kensuke's love for good guns never died so he bought a rifle sized semi-automatic.  
  
They continued to talk about what had gone on until they were just an hour away from the port at Tokyo-3. Then another chopper was seen heading towards the carrier. A bit larger but still a passenger chopper, made for civilians.  
  
Shinji looked towards it with anxiousness alongside Touji, while Kensuke sighed and then moved back towards the group sitting down. Seer however joined up with Shinji "Look this is what you have to do, if your girl is up there, you wait...and then you wait some more...then you grab her a--" "Isn't this what happened to your failing attempt at getting that computer girl at the bar?"  
  
Seer immediately paused and then nodded "Yeah, I-I-I think that's correct" Shinji nodded solemnly "Sad thing is all you had to do was ask her for coffee and then she would have slept with you" Seer sighed and then his head drooped "Well, maybe I'll get lucky with someone here and with a different tactic" Shinji nodded "yeeaaah that might work...who though?" "You said that girl......um Asuka! You said she was hot"  
  
"Jeez, I thought you wanted a girl not an impossibility" Shinji exclaimed and then Touji continued "Yeah man, the red devil is not someone you get along with easily" Seer thought about this and then said "Well I think I can do something about that, although I might have to pull some strings"  
  
By that time the chopper had landed fully and the door was now open with the pilot standing outside of the open door. Then an man in his late 40's came out and looked around, he then spotted Shinji and stepped aside. Shinji could guess this man to be his father, they were the same glasses, and he had the same beard...he didn't even look older than when Shinji left Tokyo-3.  
  
Shinji backed away subconsciously and began to open and close his hand at a regular pace as he saw his father looking towards him. Shinji stopped however when a woman with brown hair and dark eyes stepped down from the chopper. She was wearing a lab coat and seemed to be just a bit younger than Gendou (I made Yui become her true age when her body was reformed).  
  
Shinji backed away some more, but this time it was in shock, he did so again when the woman saw Shinji. She suddenly smiled and began to run towards Shinji, while he tried to think of something to do. Nothing came fast enough as he was suddenly tackled to the ground by the older woman (It's surprising how strong women really are).  
  
While Shinji seemed down for the count the woman began to cry and kept whispering "my son...my son is home" Shinji tried to understand what she was saying but he was loosing oxygen and his brain couldn't think coherently. Seer noticed this and quickly rushed over to his friend.  
  
"Ma'am, now I don't want to seem rude but...well uh...I don't think the blue showing up on his face is a good sign" The woman, Yui, immediately looked up and saw a blue Shinji trying looking a bit faint. She quickly let go and Shinji took a deep and rasped breath.  
  
"Touji!" "Baby!" were suddenly heard as Seer looked up to see Touji lift another girl up and then kiss her. "Baby?" Seer asked himself as he looked on "Sad isn't it, and that girl is my friend" Seer turned around to see a red head with blue eyes looking right at him. "Oh you speak English, do you?" (All right I'll go along with the language thing sometimes)  
  
The red head nodded and asked again in English "So, exactly who are you?" Seer smirked and answered in Japanese ( :p) "I'm Seer Reins, an old friend of Shinji...poor guy I hope he can still fly after that assault...and I suppose your Asuka?" the red head moved back in surprise but then smirked and answered "Yes that's me, I guess my charms have reached even you in the States"  
  
Seer laughed "Not really, but I have heard some stories about a pretty bratty and arrogant girl here in Tokyo from a name that I will not speak but is currently being choked by three different women" Asuka quickly looked over his shoulder and saw Shinji being choked to death by his mother, Misato and Jessie who was actually trying to save Shinji but was not helping.  
  
Finally one last person came down from the chopper, whom Seer noticed, because she had a distinct resemblance to Jessie. A girl with dark purple hair and green eyes, sad green eyes who seemed desperate for anything that would give happiness. Seer looked over to Shinji who was finally breathing freely and then moved over and spread the crowd that was forming around the event. They spread out just enough for the girl and Shinji to see each other.  
  
Shinji was up off the ground in a flash and the girl was running towards Shinji in the same manner. When they reached other, they both stopped with their arms around each other and could see only each other and nothing more. Until finally "Go Shinji! Go Shinji!" Seer and Jessie decided that Shinji deserved a little dance for this new event and were now swinging their arms around.  
  
Shinji smirked and then turned around towards the girl in his arms "I thought you said you'd wait for me" he said as the girl blushed and answered "I waited for 2 years, that was enough time" she then kissed Shinji and stayed in his arms ignoring everything else going on around them.  
  
When the Carrier reached port, the planes had to be flown in towards Nerv's new hangar. Shinji knew that Seer and Jessie would go to Nerv but when Glenn and Thomas decided to come with them, it surprised Shinji but he agreed nonetheless. Glenn and Jessie had to take an F-14 with Jessie as pilot since both lost their planes during the last mission.  
  
Shinji waved towards the chopper as it took off and then entered his F-16. "Control, this is Knight Dragon, ready for takeoff" "Roger that Knight Dragon, concussion wall is ready begin procedure..." Shinji was soon up in the air after charging his afterburners enough for a quick boost. Seer followed shortly, with Thomas in tow and then the F-14 came last.  
  
"Good flying Lieutenant Ikari, Captain Reins" The voice was Charlie and when that was heard Seer's plane could be seen beginning to descend. "Seer!" "Huh!? What!? Oh, Charlie I thought you said I was a Captain" "I did"  
  
There was complete silence over the radio...then "YEEEEEEESS!!!!!" Seer then began to barrel roll his plane over and over as he somersaulted and turned round and round. "Seer stop that, your making me dizzy" Shinji protested as he tried to look away from Seer's aircraft.  
  
Once Seer stopped Charlie called in "All right now, your new decorations are in their boxes under your seat so wait till you land, and for the next mission you'll get your own squadrons...good day" Seer and Shinji couldn't believe their ears. "Great Job Shinji I knew you had it in you" It was Misato calling over the chopper radio...while the pilot tried to calm her down "Ma'am if you could please take your seat we'll be landing soon"  
  
Shinji chuckled as Seer called in "Oh what a day, come on lets make our landing and get some grub" "Delay that, I have multiple signals coming on radar, their right over Nerv"  
  
"Oh please, we're on leave, and we have to fight once again?" Glenn gave out the info and Thomas reacted. Then Gendou, still the commander of Nerv, came on the radio "It must be Seele, they've been sending a multiple amount of fighters ever since the UN decided not to join in with Seele again...I hope you don't mind but we'll need your assistance if we're going to keep Tokyo-3 safe from harm"  
  
"*sigh* And I was hoping to relax and eat...oh well...Control! This is Blood Dragon, we have multiple fighters over the Tokyo-3 district, request permission to engage fighters and secure the city, over" They waited a while when "Captain Seer! We finally contacted you, we're under attack, the Eurasians have us pinned down with a bombing assault, we ca—"There was a deadly silence over the comrades as Seer continued to try and call them in.  
  
"Control come in, I repeat come in control! How did they get past the sensors?" Seer called out, then Kensuke answered "They must have been stealth bombers, maybe F-22, I think we can still save the ship but we'll have to split up so that we can save the city too"  
  
"Captain, I'll take care of Ken and Touji and we'll protect the city" Shinji called out, making Jessie begin to protest "Not without me yo—" "Save it Jess, we have to get back to the ship and your coming with me......I hope this isn't a mistake but since we have no other orders—"  
  
"I'll take responsibility" The commander called through the radio "All fighters you have your missions, you are cleared to engage hostiles" Shinji lead Kensuke and Touji towards Tokyo-3 as the rest did a major U-turn and the chopper began to lower altitude before a stinger missile was fired and hit the tail. "Sh** this is transport one we've lost our tail, we need back up we're gonna cras—"  
  
"Damn it! This is Knight to Rock and Hacker, what happened to the chopper!?" Kensuke answered quickly "It's been shot down, and is surrounded by enemy soldiers...it was a trap made just for them...their in the sector 2 Alpha November...near the train station"  
  
"Roger that Hacker, I'll handle it, you two take care of the planes over the city and don't worry about me!" "Roger that Knight...Aim true"  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
"This is attack team Bravo, we're in position around the chopper, getting ready to move in and extract the target, over" "Remember, capture the commander alive and execute the rest of them" "Roger that"  
  
The teams began to move in before a few gun shots came from the chopper and killed a few of the soldiers moving in. It was Misato and she was shooting through a broken window of the chopper. The leader moved back a bit and called to the other men, "Be careful how you return fire, we need to capture the target alive, get the armor units"  
  
"Sir!...enem...com....in...its loc...we..............." There was an explosion soon after as the radio satellite was blown to smithereens by an airborne F-16 that passed over head. The F-16 then went upside down and pulled on the throttle so that it would be heading towards the ground at an angle.  
  
It then opened fire on many of the soldiers and fired a missile towards the armored units. The armored units were soon destroyed and only a few soldiers were left, but they were soon shot down from Nerv soldiers that had finally reached the downed chopper.  
  
"Ikari" Shinji immediately answered his call "Rei! Is that you!?" "Affirmative thank you for the assistance, Touji and Kensuke are nearly finished themselves, but I have no information of the Carrier" "Roger I'll be there as soon as possible how are the people on the chopper"  
  
"No casualties"  
  
**********************************************************************  
  
"Jessie! Watch out, bogey on your six o'clock, turn hard!" Jessie did so and avoided a missile lock. The team reached the carrier intact but damaged from bombings and littered with dead personnel. "I got 3 Eruasian fighters, confirmed as A-10's, their increasing speed for a bombing run, I don't know if the carrier can survive it"  
  
"Roger that, Seer, your with me, Jessie, and Thomas, finish off those enemy fighters" "Roger that Charlie, I'm on your wing lets go!" Charlie's F-15 sped up with the F-16 and began to near the enemy A-10's. "Blood! Open fire!" "Roger that, gunning!"  
  
One A-10 was shot down when they were hit on the fuselage, while one other was merely hit but it slowed down. "Blood, raise your speed and get the untouched A-10, this one is mine"  
  
Seer quickly raised the speed of his aircraft and tried to get as close as he could, as fast as he could. The second that the A-10 was in range Seer fired "Blood Dragon! Fox 2! Fox 2!" The one missile was pulled away by a chaffed while the other hit the A-10's wing and sent it spinning to its demise. It exploded once it hit the waters surface just 100 meters from the carrier.  
  
"Nice shootin Blood, I guess this is why you get Captain and I'm just a 1st Lieutenant" "Oh quit whining Shinji, and tell the folks the good news" "Roger"  
  
*****************************************************************  
  
Back at Nerv HQ, the passengers of the chopper were now waiting for the response from the planes. Then something came through "This is 1st Lt. Shinji Ikari, call sign Knight, the air threat has been destroyed, the carrier Wilson 3, number 638 Bravo Zebra is severely damaged and needs medical assistance as well...please respond" Gendou picked up his mike and called through "Shinji?" there was silence before Shinji answered "Yes Commander?" "The medical teams will be sent, just come back to the hangars in Nerv with the rest of you, there will be reinforcements there shortly" "Roger that Commander...Much obliged...over and out"  
  
The Commander put down the mike and stared at the radio as if he were waiting for something...he soon received it "Thank you, father" then the radio was turned off and Gendou turned around and nodded towards Fuyutski, his second in command still. Fuyutski then gave the order for reinforcements and Medics to be sent towards the damaged carrier.  
  
________________________________________________________________________  
  
Ok if you say that some of the guys are out of character, then I'm very, very, VERY sorry but that's the way I can make it fit. Nextly, if you are still confused about something I ask that you put on a lighter tone to it. I'll give you an explanation and do my best to make sure you understand everything I say. Oh and please keep the nationalist insults to a minimum would you? Hawk Strife C ya 


	5. Peace and Love

Thank you for your reviews and for your suggestions. About Mana's hair, I thought it looked like a dark purple but if you know the true color mahogany brown it is…I guess I'm colorblind…oh well. And yes she'll get a bigger part today…and no one ever said that Yui forgave Gendou, let's just say she's tolerating him since she got to see her son. Now then about the call sign thing…I really didn't try to find out about it, but the thing is I also need to be able to remember these guys in some way. Its easier with the nicknames than with the numbers, and I think its easier with other people too. I get less confused because I add meaning to the nicknames I give them, and I'll do better to lower Seer's importance and raise Shinji's (Although I do think I am trying to do my best but I'll go with you guys, Seer will still be an important part of the story though, so be warned)  
  
Peace and Love  
  
After the last battle, the team finally landed inside the Nerv hangar and quickly stationed their planes in their given spots. Shinji quickly came out to look around the new hangar but then immediately began to run towards the exit…only to be stopped by section-2 guards. "Sorry, but you're going to have to stay here for your own protection" Shinji sighed and scowled at them "Don't you people have a life?"   
  
The two men there turned to look at each other with grim faces but immediately shook their heads and stood at attention. Shinji sighed and shook his head as he turned around to walk back to his plane "Hey Shinji!" His attention was back when he heard Seer's voice then saw a little black box falling. Shinji caught the black box and opened it to see his 2nd Lt. Insignia, "Jeez I thought I made 1st Lt." "I don't think your far off, I just wonder why we were sent straight into the officer section just after being made Corporals"   
  
Shinji nodded and answered "Probably because of Charlie, he probably held the strings at that time and gave us these ranks so that we could be respected squadron leaders" Seer nodded with a look of thoughtfulness "well that does make sense…hmm, I wonder if the guys on the chopper will be coming back any time soon"  
  
"God help me if I have to stay here any longer" Jessie yelled out suddenly. "You won't, but you'll follow me for now" Shinji looked over towards the entrance to find Gendou standing with a smirk on his face, he then walked away into the Nerv facilities with other Section-2 body guards. Shinji followed slowly until Seer started to drag Shinji by his neck, until Shinji finally sped up himself.  
  
Gendou finally came upon the room the led to his office, the office that Shinji truly did hate, along with his father. Gendou immediately stopped and beckoned them in with an annoyed face. Once they went through the door Gendou followed and the door closed with a hiss. It was totally dark until a small light was turned on and a certain someone's face could be seen in the normal hand in front of face position the commander is usually in. Gendou sighed as he spoke "Meet the new and secret commander of Nerv……yay" Shinji's eyes widened as he suddenly pinched himself "MOTHER!?!?"   
  
Indeed it was Yui Ikari, sitting in the commander's chair with nothing less than a smirk on her face. "Explanation Please!" Shinji yelled out, not exactly realizing he was yelling. "No one knows that she took over the commander position, but I still go to official events and such……she gives the orders though"  
  
Shinji was about ask why but then suddenly came across a thought and began to snicker as he looked over at this father "You had to do this just so she would forgive you didn't you?" Gendou sweat dropped as he nodded his head. Seer laughed "Wow this is sad, and Shinji's enjoying every minute of it"  
  
Seer finally noticed that Thomas and Glenn seemed very confused at the moment. "I keep forgetting the information was kept top secret, you're probably wondering what my connection is to Nerv other than my parents here" When both Glenn and Thomas nodded Shinji continued "well I was a pilot here"  
  
Glenn and Thomas seemed unfazed…thus, they didn't know what the hell Shinji was talking about. Shinji sighed "I was a pilot of the Purple Eva, in the Angel war" Glenn and Thomas stayed unfazed for three seconds and then……Plop! Thump!  
  
Glenn and Thomas were now two unconscious lumps on the floor. "Oh well, they took it better than I thought they would" Shinji stated with an amused smirk on his face. "So then, where are the rest of your good friends Shinji?" Seer asked with some amusement as he tried to wake Thomas and Glenn up. Shinji couldn't answer but Yui did "Their just outside waiting for our talk to finish"   
  
"And what talk is that?" Jessie asked with some confusion, Yui sighed and stood up from her desk, then she walked around and came towards Shinji, she then held her son's face with her right hand, she had to reach up just a little bit since Shinji was actually a little taller than her. "I want Shinji to stay here and not go back to the war" Seer sighed at this mumbling that he should have known while Shinji smiled. But Shinji's smile was a sympathetic one, he knew he couldn't, he had to fight with his friends, he'd come to far to just go back to peace.  
  
"I can't do that, I'll finish the war and make a name for myself along with the rest of my friends…then I'll come home" Yui sighed and nodded, it was as if she knew that Shinji wouldn't agree to it, Gendou was not reacting at all to the situation. Seer sighed once again and stood up "Don't worry about your son, I don't think this war will last more than another year, probably much less than that……" Shinji nodded in enthusiasm "Yeah! That's true! The soldiers have been regrouped and we'll be preparing for a final assault very soon"   
  
"The soldiers aren't in tip-top shape just yet but after one more important mission that the air force has to take care of, they'll be ready and we'll begin for the final front" Touji spoke up suddenly. Yui still seemed pretty sad but she nodded and smiled at her son and then at the rest of them.  
  
After that decision was made the group walked out of the room, after waking both Thomas and Glenn, and were met with friends that Shinji hadn't seen in over two years. Finally, Shinji was able to notice the minimal amount of changes that his friends had gone through. True, that Asuka, Rei, Hikari and Mana had gotten taller and more mature (In mind and body) Misato seemed the same and still just as mature as before.   
  
Ritsuko was also there but didn't speak very much and seemed to like to stay in solitude. Maya, Shigeru and Aoba were still on their computer terminals above the MAGI and a many other employees on computers. Shinji was then led towards the Eva cage, as he entered he was surprised to see a few extra Eva's standing straight just like his own. Asuka's was still there along with Unit 01, but there were 2 other's that Shinji couldn't recognize at all.  
  
"Those are the new Eva's that we received, they said it would be important for any other Angel attacks if they would come. Those two belonged to Hikari and Mana. Altogether, Shinji was happy that the changes were mostly good. Shinji would have stayed longer but Seer was against it.  
  
"Listen Shinji, we need to get a drink and some food, I'm starving and we just came down from a battle so we could use the time to loosen up a bit" Shinji sighed and had to agree with Seer, the last battle did bring on a lot of tension and pressure, Shinji had no choice but to agree. Misato spoke quickly "Well then, in that case, you should come over to my place, we'll have a small party and get some drinks and good food, as long as Shinji cooks"  
  
"Shinji cooks? Oh! What a nice surprise!" Seer said as he slapped Shinji on the back. Misato chuckled and quickly grabbed Ritsuko, and the three (what are they called?) workers over the MAGI and dragged them over to her car. Yui went along with Gendou and Rei, while all the girls, including Jessie went in their own car. As for the rest of the guys, they decided to take a jeep from the Nerv car rentals.   
  
Seer drove while Shinji was in the seat besides him and the other four guys just hung out in the back, some standing, some sitting since there wasn't much room. Shinji was happy to be back in Tokyo-3, the city was still looking good and it was still lively. There were more people, probably since the war began and Japan chose to be neutral in it, so far any invasion force that came near Japan, was stopped by the United States Navy that was doing patrols of the area in order to protect Japan.  
  
Japan had no army, other than the Eva's, after WWII it was a condition of surrender that Japan never begin to create another army of any kind, that would be the end of it. Thus, Japan decided to accept the protection from the different nations who offered, knowing full well they did not want to use the Evas again.  
  
Everyone made to the apartment all right, except for those in Misato's car since she still drove faster than her speedometer could measure. Shinji shuddered at those memories and hoped that a repeat was not in store for him or his comrades. They all made it up to the apartment, a few took the stairs, others took the elevator. Soon, however, the party had started and everyone was having a good time talking to each other and remembering things from the past.   
  
Shinji decided to go outside for some fresh air and chose to stand on the parlor and look out towards the city. "This view never gets old does it?" A female voice asked from behind Shinji, who shook his head "No I suppose it doesn't" He then turned around and saw Mana standing with a look of peaceful happiness.   
  
"Come on, Mana, did you miss me so much that you can't be as energetic as you were before" she giggled at that and shook her head "Not for a while, not until I know I'll see your face again…after the war is over" Shinji nodded, it was something he feared, him getting killed in action then sent home in a body bag, but he also knew that nothing could stop him from fighting, he felt that he was making up for all of his screw ups during the Angel war.   
  
But after the war finished and he came back…what next? Shinji had an odd feeling that something would happen, something that would change them when they came back. Shinji shook the thought away, hoping it was just a feeling, and nothing more.  
  
Mana then leaned against the rail and looked towards Shinji with a smile, "Are you happy to see me?" Shinji chuckled and then kissed her very gently "You have no idea" he said with an even gentler voice.   
  
"Their still hitting it off I see" Touji said as he looked towards the parlor, just in time to see Shinji give the first kiss of the moment. Seer looked over as well and felt happy for his comrade-in-arms, he deserved something good to return home to. Something that Seer decided he should try to get.  
  
Seer stood up and stretched his arms he then began to move towards one of the girls in the party. The only one that actually caught Seer's attention was Asuka, mostly her fiery spirit, although others would call it her ability to act like a bitch. Asuka noticed Seer and decided to speak in Japanese in order to confuse Seer a bit.  
  
"So, how you holding out with all these drinks?" Seer wasn't messed up and he knew his Japanese well "I haven't had anything but I'll be fine, so don't worry about me" Asuka pouted knowing that her tactic failed but wasn't about to let this guy walk over her. "So…do you know why Shinji decided to join the war?" Seer laughed at this question "Yeah! It's because of me, I dragged him into it"   
  
Asuka smirked at this thinking she had the perfect way to bring him down along with Shinji "So, you'd so desperate do get a partner up in the air, that you would get wimpy little Shinji Ikari, the loser" Seer immediately got serious "Shinji's no wimp, I'll tell you that…and I wouldn't trust anyone with my life other than Shinji, we are best friends and we'll never stop fighting besides each other……I guess you still think fighting alone is the best, well listen up cause I'm only gonna say this once…if you don't find a partner to trust during combat soon, your going to die a shameful death, only because you want to prove something that you hope is true but you don't truly believe in"   
  
Asuka listened to all of what Seer said, she didn't say anything else and stood still as Seer walked away. 'So much for something good to return home to….I really blew it' Seer thought to himself as he went out the front door in order to get some fresh air, seeing as the balcony was still taken by Mana and Shinji. "Oh brother, I guess all that I'll have is the alcohol and the war…..damn it" Seer continued to sulk with a sad grin on his face as he stared at the moon.   
  
"You like to hang out alone or something?" Seer looked around and noticed a woman in her forties with red hair and blue eyes. Seer saw the remarkable connection to Asuka, making the guess that the woman was Asuka's mother. Seer smirked a bit and answered "Oh well, I screwed up in getting a girl so yeah I'm interested in hanging out alone for the moment…" The women seemed to be analyzing him with her gaze, and it gave Seer the creeps.   
  
"So, which girl was it that you screwed up on getting?" the lady asked with a friendly smile, "Well it was…Asuka……hehe maybe I'm aiming to high…" The lady laughed a friendly laugh as she shook her head "No, my daughter may be stubborn but she understands after a while, or after I talk to her…I'll do you a favor…see if I can set you up as long as you come back from this war alive…along with Shinji" Seer scratched the back of his head as he heard Asuka's mother walk away (What's her name?). He then said to himself in a whisper "Man, I must be desperate if I have to resort to this"  
  
Inside the party was still going on, everyone was as happy as ever, and there wasn't a care in the world. Asuka was in a similar state, but the Seer's words still had some kind of impact on her. She then saw her mother walking towards her with a care-free smile. "Momma! I was hoping you would make it to the party!"   
  
"Dear, you didn't have to worry about me showing up……you know I wouldn't miss it…..so where is that Shinji, the guest of honor" Asuka's mother then began to look around when Asuka answered "Oh I think he's sucking face with his girlfriend" "Something I'm sure you'd like a boyfriend for, ey?" Asuka rolled her eyes "Mein Gott not this conversation again…I already said, I haven't met anyone that I like enough" "Oh I think you have, you just don't realize it just yet…but who knows? Maybe its too soon to tell" Asuka didn't understand what her mother was talking about but she could guess. "I hope you don't mean that new guy Seer do you?"  
  
Asuka's mother shrugged and then walked away in order to get a drink. Asuka was left thinking, but it was hard for her to think with the party going on, so she left and then saw Seer standing and looking at the night sky. Asuka stopped but then continued on with a look of indifference, she then stood right besides Seer.  
  
"Having fun?" Asuka asked with a smirk, to which Seer smiled and shook his head "Well, in a way…" Asuka nodded and was quiet. "Why are you out here?" Seer asked all of a sudden. Asuka looked away as she thought of an answer "I came out here……to think" "About what?" "Anything I suppose, but I can't do that inside so…" "Yeah, I understand".  
  
Both were quiet once again as they tried to think about what they would say next and ended up interrupting each other. They both gave a small laugh and Seer let Asuka go first "I'm sorry about what I said before, it's not my place, and you probably know Shinji better than I do" Seer smirked at this and spoke "Well, I'm sorry that I went all out on you, maybe you were right, but Shinji is different now"  
  
Asuka nodded in agreement "He does seem pretty different now doesn't he? It seems I've changed too…I can actually agree and apologize without stuttering" Seer began to laugh at this while Asuka simply smiled. They were both quiet once again, but their minds were on each other, and thus they didn't notice how the music in the party suddenly disappeared.   
  
Asuka finally spoke again "So how is life as a pilot?" "I could ask you the same question" Asuka smirked "You could, but I asked first" "All right if that's the way you want it…I gotta say it's kind of exhilarating, it's the most excitement anyone could go through, well second to being an Eva Pilot I suppose"  
  
Asuka nodded but then answered "The thing is, we need enemies in order to keep life as exhilarating as ever, and no angels means no danger, I'm surprised NERV is still operational" "Yeah I guess that is kind off awkward but I'm sure it's because of the military or something"  
  
Asuka was quiet again but spoke out with some nervousness "So.. umm.. When will you… ah need to go back to the…war" Seer wasn't nervous but he certainly was paying attention to Asuka's nervousness "We'll be sent off in 2 weeks, we're lucky to have so much time on leave, especially with the war coming to the most important part, we'll be sent to the final battles very soon"  
  
Asuka nodded and then began to get fidgety as she began to think some more. "Will you come back alive?" "I'll come back a hero, along with Shinji…I'll say he did some of the work" Seer then chuckled and grinned at Asuka. Asuka also had a smile but it was a sad one. There were no more words, because Seer noticed that the party had gone quiet. "Asuka do you hear that?" "I don't hear anyth-" She stopped mid sentence realizing that the party had gone quiet. "Well I sure hope that no one is by the door listening to us!" Seer said in a loud voice so that he could be heard by the door, Asuka caught on "I know, why don't we go inside and see!? I'll have to beat up anyone that's behind the door!"  
  
They then moved towards the door, which was now full of noise from people trying to move out of the way. Seer opened the door and looked in to see all the guys their age, rolling on the floor trying to get up and away. "Oh look Asuka! Sacrifices!" "YAY!!!"  
  
Touji couldn't help himself anymore as he suddenly yelled out "Run for your lives!!!" Everyone was soon running around trying to get away from Asuka, while Seer simply sat down and tripped anyone going his way.  
  
The group did as much catching up and having fun as they could before the call for war came through. Asuka and Seer were beginning to date although very little. And Shinji went out with Mana every other day. On specific days they would all go out to have fun…they were like a happy family.  
  
At one point they went to an artificially made beach, in Tokyo-3.   
  
"Hey Shinji! Catch!" Seer then threw a beach ball over to Shinji who caught and then passed it on to someone else. The girls were still changing while all the guys were throwing the beach ball.   
  
"Touji maybe you should work more on your aim, than your strength" Shinji said as he looked over at the beach ball 20 feet away from him. "Well your aim would be a little screwed up too, if you were hitting the ball when you saw us" A female voice yelled out. Shinji looked over and then blinked before looking again. There stood Mana, Asuka, Hikari, Jessie, and even Rei in bathing suits that did more than enhance each of their figures.  
  
All the guys were staring and kept on staring as the girls came over to them. "Come on Seer, I don't look that good do I?" Asuka asked as she stood in front of Seer "I am looking at the beauty of a goddess…….I am not worthy" And so Seer got on his knees and bowed like a worshiper.   
  
The other guys were acting in a similar way. Shinji was on his knee asking for Mana to marry him, while Glenn kept saying he would be Rei's servant, and Touji……well Touji continued to drool.   
  
"All right you guys, we're going to get a tan, and your going into the water…." Hikari said suddenly and soon enough, all the guys were in the water with the beach ball. Seer eyed the girls with a mischievous grin, and Shinji noticed "What are you thinking about in that head of yours?" "I'm thinking this is going to get boring real fast, and I know how to make it exciting, quick tell everyone to grab a bucket and---------------" Shinji began to laugh and then nodded.  
  
The girls were all resting peacefully with the sun shining down, hoping to get a good tan. Then all hell broke loose, as the guys dumped buckets of ocean water, mixed with sand all over the girls bodies. Then the guys were running away, followed by 4 angry girls and one confused Rei (Don't worry she'll seem human at some point in time…..like in book 2).  
  
These were the good days, and it seemed as if they would never end. The girls were having fun and were happy, along with the guys. Soon, however, all that happiness came to an end, when a news bulletin showed up saying how a city of the allied nations was captured by the Eurasians. More things happened, the Eurasians also began to use their Stonehenge war machine more often. The location was still unknown along with the layout and weakness of the facility itself. But it was certain that their leave was going to be called short.  
  
They soon got a transmission that called for all of the pilots to get into their planes and head towards the location of a stationary Aircraft Carrier. Things were heating up, and the end of the war didn't seem to far away. But it still wasn't close enough for them. The day they all left was a sad one.  
  
"Shinji…just so you know…this sucks!" Touji said all of a sudden while they were all in the hangar, they were prepping their aircrafts. Shinji sadly agreed and Seer yelled out the same thing, but then he added on "We'll get home though, and we'll definitely finish the war as soon as possible. We're gonna be heroes, you got that!?!?"   
  
There was a small cheer coming from each of the pilots. Soon their planes were ready for the flight ahead of them, but Shinji still needed to say his goodbyes, along with Seer but at the time he wouldn't admit it.   
  
Yui and Gendo were at the entrance to the hangar along with Mana, Asuka and Rei. "Come back soon, and come back alive" Yui said in a kind voice, Asuka and Rei said something similar while Gendo said nothing but nodded. Mana gave Shinji one last kiss before saying "I will wait again, but make sure you come back before 2 years…all right?" Shinji smiled and nodded before he turned around and headed towards his own plane.  
  
Seer received a goodbye from Asuka that he'd never forget. At first she seemed nervous, and Seer was a little nervous as well. Asuka then jumped onto Seer and gave him a kiss, making him promise to come back. Seer was bewildered, but he then grinned and kissed Asuka promising that he would come back and bring all the others back with him, even from the depths of hell if he needed to.  
  
The planes launched soon after, heading towards their carrier. And towards their next mission. They would be ready to face all odds, and would fight to the death if it were necessary.  
  
Next Up:  
  
Shinji here. Looks like we made to the carrier with some sad thoughts but great determination. Seer and I finally got to meet our squadrons, although it seems pretty small. Anyways about the next mission, Intel has the location of Stonehenge, which is pretty near the enemy capital. We need to protect our soldiers while they get onto the shore, Touji's leading the ground forces through one of the shores. Bomber squadrons have been seen in the area, and the casualty rates will be too great if we don't protect them. How can we protect the ground forces, and keep flying in the air? C ya in the next chapter!  
  
Ok now I am really sorry this took so freaking long to type and update but I was kinda stuck with the whole Seer and Asuka thing. I am for it, but it's hard to do. And I wanted to try the whole 'next episode' thing. I think it looks cool, might add some suspense. Well I do hope I can get the next chapter up a lot faster than the others, sorry again! Oh and if the people are out of character again, then I'm sorry.  
  
C ya later  
  
Hawk strife 


	6. Dangerous Beach

Ok now its time to work on this chapter. I sure hope I get more Reviews on this one, and I'm sorry that the last one was of such low quality, but hey, I needed to get some experience in these calm and dramatic type of chapters, I'm really going to need it, much later on.  
  
Dangerous Beach  
  
After the flight back from Tokyo-3, all of the pilots wondered how they would survive the rest of the war. Those thoughts were cut short however, when the next mission was brought up and the time for the debriefing of that mission. During the wait, Charlie decided to show Seer and Shinji to their commanding officer, along with their own squadron.  
  
Their CO was actually two people. Commander Hawkins and Corporal Tiniant. Hawkins was the obviously the higher up while Tiniant was the second in command. Charlie introduced the two pilots.  
  
Commander Hawkins was the first to speak in front of the two, "I hope to see some good things from you boys, good luck on your next mission, I'll see you two at the debriefing" Tiniant came next and spoke quickly in her strong voice "You'll need to know your call sign during the mission, Charlie has his own way of doing things, but you'll need to follow the rules from now on. You'll be given a call sign just after you've been debriefed, take it and add the number one to it, or lead, whichever will do fine during a mission, remember that"  
  
Tiniant then followed Hawkins over to the debriefing room. Shinji and Seer looked at each other and then sighed. Once both made it to the debriefing room the meeting started.   
  
"This mission is quite important, this is to be the starting stage of an invasion force on the Eurasians, and the hopeful downfall of Stonehenge and the Eurasian capital. The ground forces are being debriefed on their mission as we speak. They are to get onto the land by sea, and then secure the surrounding area. There are only three beaches there, which have been named: Gamma, Delta, and Omega beach. They are heavily guarded by Tanks, Pillboxes, SAMs, AA guns, and a few enemy planes"  
  
"Our fighters need to protect these soldiers to the extent of their abilities, the casualty rates cannot be too high, or else we'll never be able to attack the capital. There are possibilities of enemy bombers in the area. Delta beach is also under the firing zone of a group of Howitzers presumed to be in the area, while Gamma beach has a series of winding paths behind the mountains near the beach, they are used to transport reinforcement SAM's and Tanks"  
  
"Leading the ground forces in the Gamma beach will be Sergeant Suzuhara, Delta beach will be lead by 1st Lieutenant Dickson and Omega beach will be lead by Sergeant Krane. There will be 9 small squadrons made of 3 planes each. 3 squadrons will be sent to each beach. Once one beach has been secured the 3 squadrons must move on to another beach that is still fighting. Keep your wits about you during this mission, and don't let your guard down"  
  
"The mission squadrons will be named and positioned as such:  
  
2nd Lieutenant Nagassi-Indigo Squadron-Gamma Beach  
  
1st Lieutenant Ikari-Knight Squadron-Gamma Beach  
  
Captain Tak-Raptor Squadron-Gamma Beach  
  
1st Lieutenant Renne-Dune Squadron-Delta Beach  
  
Captain Reins-Storm Squadron-Delta Beach  
  
Major Gonzalez-Meca Squadron-Delta Beach  
  
1st Lieutenant Aida-Blade Squadron-Omega Beach  
  
Major Shamrock-Zeta Squadron-Omega Beach  
  
Lieutenant Colonel -Lamda Squadron-Omega Beach  
  
Meet with your squadron and debrief them on the mission. Take this mission seriously, if we lose this battle we will not be able to win the war. At the moment we are outside of Stonehenge's, put your concern on the weaponry being used on the beach at that moment and remember what your main mission objectives are. The mission will start in 2 hours, get set up and begin to debrief your wingmen, That is all. Dismissed."  
  
Shinji and Seer were one of the first to leave the room, they then went towards the hangars where their new planes and their wingmen were supposedly. Once finding their squadron names, they met their wingmen. Seer's wingmen was 1 woman and a man. The woman was a US American with black hair and green/blue eyes named Meryl Riker. The man was Mexican, named Gerardo De La Buen, Jerry for short, he was a tanned man with short black hair and brown eyes.  
  
Shinji's wingmen were a little different, he had a woman and a man as well. The woman was Jessie herself while the man was named Sean Dekker. Sean was a blue eyed, blonde haired man, with a medium build. But he seemed to be a little emotionless and indifferent about anything that happened to him.  
  
Shinji's plane was changed to F-15's while Seer was given the F-18 for battle. Their wingmen received the same planes and both teams were now ready for the mission ahead of them.  
  
"Knight lead, this is Sky Eye…we have confirmation of enemy fighters in the vicinity of Gamma beach, Sergeant Suzuhara is calling for cover, head there and give them your support"  
  
"Roger that Sky Eye, Knight squadron is on the way" "Knight lead, a transmission coming in from Echo lead, I'll Patch it through"  
  
"This is Sergeant Suzuhara, Echo lead, of the ground forces on Gamma Beach, where is the fighter support, Sky Eye?"  
  
"Sky Eye here, sit tight, Squadrons Knight, Indigo and Raptor are on their way"  
  
"What do you mean sit tight!? Do you have any idea what we're going through here!?"  
  
Shinji decided to increase the speed of his F-15 thus forcing his wingmen to increase their own speed. "Knight lead to squadron, Check left!" Knight squadron immediately did a turn to their left and changed their heading in order to reach Gamma beach directly.  
  
"This is Knight lead to squadron, focus on the destruction of the enemy ground forces, if any planes show up, give me a call and a position, and I'll handle it, move it!"  
  
Knight squadron then split up and began to attack the many tanks and pill boxes that were on the beach.  
  
G. Forces "We're taking heavy damage on the Western side, Alpha group, move away now! Air Support the Western side is under heavy fire coming form the pillboxes, take them out!"   
  
"Indigo Squadron here, we'll take care of this" A female voice said as a trio of F-14's made their way towards the area that needed help.  
  
Shinji skimmed the ground while firing at a howitzer and a pillbox, he then locked on to a tank and fired a missile. All of the targets exploded with ease as he pulled out and circled around for another run before Jessie called in. "Knight lead, this is Knight-2, my radar shows an enemy plane coming in towards my area"  
  
"This is Knight lead, I copy, I'm on my way" Shinji immediately did a U-turn and made his way towards the area where Jessie was currently fighting. Shinji called in once he reached the area "I have a visual on the enemy, confirmed F-18, engaging"  
  
The F-18 suddenly turned away from Shinji's F-15 and increased speed in order to get away. Shinji increased his plane's speed as well in order to match the F-18's and gain on the enemy slowly. Once Shinji had the plane locked on, the enemy tried to do maneuvers in order to lose the lock on, but to no avail as Shinji fired his missile.  
  
"Fox 2!Fox 2!"  
  
An explosion sounded high above the ground, and the roar of a plane was soon heard shortly after. "Yup, he sure has gotten good" Touji whispered to himself, although he could barely here from all the rain and machine gun fire.   
  
"Tom! I want all of the teams on Gamma beach to check in and give a status report on their soldiers" "Yes Sir" Tom immediately pulled back a bit in order to reach the radio that was being sheltered, although very little, by the rain. "This is Lieutenant Tom Maine, second-in-command of Echo group, all teams check in and give report on soldiers, starting with the Alpha team"  
  
Tom then huddled in order to listen to the responses, once the last team checked in, he reported to Touji. "All teams accounted for, but the Sigma team lost some soldiers in the last charge" "Tell them to join up with the nearest team, and find out when the equipment we need is landing" "Yes Sir!"  
  
Touji was kneeling down behind a small barricade, he then knelt up just a little bit and aimed his M-16 rifle towards the enemy soldiers crawling towards their barricade. He opened fire and killed all the ones in that spot. "Well Tom?" "The equipment will be here in a few minutes, but our position is still not secure enough for a landing" "Tell that to our Air Support, make them focus on the Pillboxes and--"   
  
Touji stopped because in the distance he heard a whistling sound "Everyone get down!" 2 seconds later a mortar hit the ground and the sand erupted near the spot where one of their barricades lay. "Tell them to hurry up, we need to move away from this mortar fire and get that equipment ASAP"  
  
"Knight lead, this is Tom Maine. Focus on enemy pillboxes and tanks that are in Center Gamma beach. The area must be secure for the equipment necessary for the final charge, do you copy? Over…" "This is Knight lead, we're on our way, just hold on for a few seconds"  
  
Tom looked towards the sky and began to pray, then soon after another mortar hit the ground near one of their soldiers. He was blown away from the blast, Tom went to check on him and found him dead. Tom sighed and continued to pray.   
  
Then the sky roared again and soon after the pillbox and the tank that were attacking their position exploded. Touji gave a yell in triumph before calling out "All right, Echo team, move forward!" The sound of choppers also hummed in the distance but the fight wasn't over just yet.  
  
"Shit!" Seer immediately pushed his aircraft down and dodged a missile that was sent from an enemy fighter before he suddenly righted his plane and fired a barrage of bullets towards the enemy. His bullets hit the cockpit and thus the enemy plane exploded. "Confirmed kill for Storm lead, boss are you all right?"  
  
"I'll be fine, have you confirmed the location of the howitzers yet? I don't know how much longer those ground forces can last" "Location confirmed at Area 2 in the center 10 clicks north of the beach"   
  
"Roger that, you two head back to the beach and take out those tanks, I'll handle the howitzers" "Roger!" Seer changed the heading of his F-18 fighter plane and headed towards the area, at the same time he switched his secondary weaponry to a long range napalm bomb.   
  
"I sure hope these things do what their supposed to, cause I only have two chances at this" Seer was whispering to himself as he came near the howitzers. "I confirm the howitzers, must be 10 of them, at least. Getting ready to drop the bombs…Pickle! Pickle!"  
  
"Howitzer group, report!" "We haven't been spotted yet, and our firing has continued towards the enemy, no other problems"  
  
"Understood keep your eyes open" The soldier nodded and walked away towards his Howitzer. "Keep it up!" "Roger" a few seconds later they heard the gun fire coming from one of their AA guns. Then an explosion came and the AA gunfire stopped immediately, then the roar of a jet plane came above them.  
  
The soldier was about to give the order to retreat when another roar soon came. Once it passed over there was complete silence for a few seconds.  
  
Then an explosion came from the first of the howitzers, the explosion sent out a wave of flames and began to spread. Each of the howitzers that the flames touched, exploded almost immediately. Then another bomb hit the ground and the rest of the howitzers began to explode. The soldiers also began to burn, and the howitzer group was turned into nothing more than ash.  
  
"Target hit, the group of howitzers are down in flames! Bravo team, how's the battle going?" "We're seeing the diminishing use of the artillery, looks like we're in the safe zone, but the pillboxes and tanks are still causing a minor problem" "Roger that, we're on our way"  
  
Seer immediately pulled his F-18 away from the smoking ruins, and headed towards the beach. He hoped that Shinji was doing as well as he was on the battle field.  
  
Shinji pulled away from the beach as soon as a SAM missile locked on and fired. "Knight lead! Break left!" Shinji did so and barely dodged the missile that was aimed at him. "Thanks Indigo lead"   
  
"Not a problem, just buy me a drink when we get back" "Consider it done" Shinji then skimmed the ground again before he fired on the SAM that targeted him, it soon exploded into pieces and Shinji continued to attack any other enemy ground forces.  
  
"Air Support! This is Lieutenant Maine, our radar shows multiple SAM transports, AA guns, and Tanks going through the mountain pass and headed in this direction. We need you to take them down before they reach the beach, Alpha group already had a visual of a tank before it was destroyed, our equipment is almost here, just give us some more time"  
  
"Knight lead here! We'll hold them off long enough for you to prepare…Knights 2 and 3, come with me, we'll destroy those transports and give the soldiers some free time"  
  
Sean answered first "Roger Knight lead"   
  
"I'm with you, boss" Jessie finally replied  
  
The three soon came together into a small V-formation before heading towards the mountain pass. Once in position they lowered their altitude and tried to lock on to any ground targets, but it proved to be difficult with the mountain pass.  
  
"This pass is to thin! I can barely get a lock on, and I don't know if I can hit them with the missile!" Jessie's outburst proved to be true for the other two pilots, Shinji then pulled up and headed towards the beach. "You two stay here and do what you can to destroy the ground forces, I'll handle anything that gets past you"  
  
Once Shinji reached Gamma beach, he saw helicopters landing and deploying soldiers, and quite a few tanks. "Sergeant Suzuhara!" He called through the radio, when Touji answered Shinji continued "We're not going to be able to keep the tanks away, the pass is to thin to get a good shot in, I can handle the ones that get here, but you should be prepared"  
  
"Roger that Knight lead, our tanks are just about ready, we'll position the men so that we can have the advantage, everything else around here is cleared and secured"   
  
Shinji nodded and sighed as he began to circle around the exit of the mountain pass. Shinji's radar soon picked up one of the enemy ground forces, he then pulled away and moved towards the exit of the mountain pass at a slow speed. Before anything could exit the pass there was a sharp turn there, when they appeared either Shinji or the ground troops would fire.   
  
Whoever fired first didn't matter, it was that they had to fire and keep them away before all their hard work went to waste.  
  
Shinji continued to get closer and wait, until a tank suddenly came from around the corner and turned. But the nozzle was already aimed towards Shinji. His eyes widened as he suddenly pulled the trigger and fired the missile, and the tank fired its cannon. Shinji immediately pulled up as he heard an explosion.   
  
The missile was destroyed, along with the tank's bomb. Shinji's plane was unharmed, and the tank was soon destroyed by a rocket launcher coming from the ground troops, Shinji sighed in relief as he continued to circle around once more, hoping for a better approach to the enemy.  
  
Touji quickly reloaded his rocket launcher and looked towards what was left of the enemy tank. It was nothing more than a hunk of junk but another transport could drive around it. Touji aimed towards the entrance just as one of his own tanks drove until it was right beside him. The top opened to reveal another soldier. "Sir! The group inside this tank has been designated to be under your tank command!" Touji chuckled and nodded.  
  
Touji got into the tank as fast as he could, he really didn't like to command a group inside of a tank. He would have taken a single-manned assault tank over this any day. But order's were order's, so he entered and began to give out his orders.  
  
"Move the tank forward at medium speed for 5 seconds. Aim the cannon towards the exit of the mountain pass! Keep eyes on radar and visual contacts of the enemy, on my mark, you will fire." Touji kept his eyes into the other visual scope in order to look towards the exit.  
  
His orders were carried out efficiently and the tank was in position to fire on the first enemy it came across.   
  
5 seconds later, the tank fired and hit its target.  
  
Seer sighed as he looked over the beach, it was secured and there were barely any enemy fighters in the sky. But those were being handled by the other squadrons. "Meryl, Jerry, stay on my wing"  
  
"Roger Storm lead" "No te preocupas jefe" (Don't worry boss) Seer shook his head. Understanding Spanish was no problem, but Jerry should begin to speak English a little more often, it would help Jerry himself, than Seer.  
  
Seer began to circle around the beach as he waited for his wingmen. They appeared and then Sky Eye called in "This is Sky Eye AWACS to all fighters. The three beaches have been secured, but radar has confirmed 5 A-10s heading towards Delta Beach. All squadrons head over there immediately and destroy those A-10s before they destroy our troops"  
  
Seer immediately locked on to the position of the 5 A-10s. The A-10s were presently in a V-formation but were separated enough that they could scramble at any moment. Seer lead his group towards the A-10s at top speed. On the way, they met up with Shinji's Knight squadron.  
  
"Knight lead, good to see you made it!" Seer called out as he looked over to the other jet through the cockpit and waved. Shinji waved back as he answered "Seer, you'll never change" Seer laughed and sped his aircraft up.  
  
"Let's take these planes out, we'll accomplish this mission and get a drink, how's that?"  
  
"Sound's good to me, Storm lead"  
  
Knight Squadron and Storm squadron were soon met up with Indigo Squadron and its Mi-2000s, Zeta Squadron with its F-22s and Blade Squadron with its F-14s.  
  
"Kensuke! Nagassi! And Shamrock! Keep together and don't let any of the A-10s get away" Shinji was the one giving out these orders, while the other fighter planes simply followed. "This is Blade-2, sure am glad you two made it" Shinji began to wonder who was speaking but realized quickly "Glenn? Is that you?" "That's right"  
  
"This is Nagassi, we need to focus, so don't start socializing now, we need to survive this first" Meryl wanted to speak up but decided against it as soon as Seer called out. "I have a visual, confirmed 5 A-10 bomber-planes heading our way"   
  
"Knight lead here, this is where we stop them, split up and pick your targets, the escort can't be too far behind, so keep an eye out!"  
  
The 15 fighters immediately split apart and began to fly in an arch towards the enemy planes. The A-10s only began to react at that moment.  
  
"White squadron, take evasive action, we only need to hold out until the escort arrives, along with the Yellow Squadron. They won't survive their attack" "Commander! They've just gone behind us, their following in pursuit!" "What!?"  
  
The Lead A-10 immediately did a nose dive in order to try and lose the enemy behind it, but the A-10 wasn't very fast and had to depend on maneuverability. "All fighters, keep your planes away from the enemy"  
  
"This is White-3, I have one right behind me! I can't shake him!" "Calm down pilot, they can't be that good, just keep your mind on the training"   
  
The captain then looked towards White-3, just in time to see him turn into a ball of fire, the winning fighter was an F-18 that suddenly pulled up and went after the other fighters. Another plane was suddenly blown up, this one was to the opposite side of the captain, it was shot down by an F-15 plane.  
  
"We can survive them long enough to destroy the beach, hang on men!"  
  
"This is a lost cause for them" Glenn said suddenly as he piloted his F-14 behind an enemy A-10, his co-pilot, Lily answered "Yeah I know what you mean……you have a lock on, fire!" Glenn did so and destroyed his target.   
  
"How many left?" He called into his com-link. "None" Nagassi answered as soon as she fired her own missile and hit the enemy on the left wing, the plane then spiraled right into a mountain.  
  
"This is Storm lead, we've handled the escorts that were trailing behind, I think we can call this mission a success" "About time, I'm getting close to ¼ left in my fuel" Sean said over the radio. Shinji agreed and was about to pull his plane over to change heading and head to the carrier, when Sky Eye called in.  
  
"All fighters, planes have shown up on radar, their identity is unknown, check it out and confirm this visually, proceed with extreme caution, and make sure you all go."  
  
Seer sighed, "Guess we still aren't finished" Shinji chuckled "That's right…All fighters group together and head towards the location given to us"  
  
Shinji began to lead his own squadron and saw as a few other squadrons joined his formation, Seer had something similar. They were now two formations of V. Being led by Shinji and Seer.  
  
"This is Indigo-2, my co-pilot says that there's radar contact at the moment…they are there, and heading straight for us" a few more seconds passed before Seer called out "Storm lead here, I have a visual, they're 5 planes…yellow noses and tails"  
  
"The Yellow Squadron" The voice was coming from Sky Eye, then Seer continued "The planes……don't look like anything I've ever seen before"   
  
Shinji looked over in order to check and realized that they were planes that hadn't been seen by anyone. They seemed new, probably a prototype. Nagassi called in "Guess they decided to test these planes out on us, well let's show them" "Hold up!" Shinji yelled out "If they would send prototypes to fight against us, then they're expecting a lot from these things, which means that if they work, they must be very good, be cautious, do NOT let your guard down"  
  
Seer nodded as he called through the com-link "I'll have my wingmen stay with me, that'll leave 12 flying, everyone take a wingman and fly out with them. Protect each other, understand?"  
  
Seer then flew forward with 2 planes following behind him. They headed towards the Yellow Squadron by arching and then following them. "Storm lead, give us a description of the planes" Sky Eye called out, Seer responded "They look like F-14's but bulkier and with single piloting. They wings also move in order to help with the speed, they also have cannons below them, I suppose this is they're weaponry"  
  
Suddenly the 5 planes scrambled and headed in many different directions. "Oh Crap!" Seer yelled out as he found that one of the planes were now behind his squadron. "Storm Squadron scramble!" After giving the order the three planes split up, but the Yellow squadron plane continued to follow Seer.   
  
"Damn! Going after the leader" Seer then increased the speed of his plane and tried to outmaneuver it. But the other plane simply followed Seer wherever he went. Then, it fired a missile, which in turn split into many missiles. "Oh Shit! Concussion missiles" Seer began to roll over to the right before he pulled up suddenly and raised altitude.  
  
There were 6 missiles, 3 of them flew off and missed when Seer pulled up suddenly, but the final three were still on his tail and too close to dodge. Then they were suddenly shot down, and Shinji's F-15 showed up suddenly. "gasp gasp Thanks for the save" "Don't mention it, now to get these bastards"   
  
Shinji immediately began to follow on of the enemy fighters. But they moved with incredible speed and maneuverability. Shinji took a while before he was able to lock on. But once he did "Gotcha" He fired his missile and the plane in front seemed unaffected before the thrusters on the enemy fighter's back were suddenly pulled to its front and it rolled away from the offending missiles.   
  
Then the cannon on the bottom came out in a hand and a free hand came on the other side of the plane. It had transformed and now it was hovering and firing missiles and bullets at Shinji from a stationary point. "What the hell just happened!?!?"  
  
One of the other enemy planes decided to do something similar and fired on Glenn's F-14. "Shit! I can't dodge the bullets and the missiles!" Glenns cockpit suddenly broke and Lily squealed slightly before going silent. Glenn's eyes widened "Lily…Lily answer me…Lily!" Glenn couldn't turn around to look but he hoped that she wasn't dead, she then coughed suddenly and began to breath in rasped breaths.  
  
Glenn's eyes began to water "You BASTARDS!!!!!!" "Hold it Glenn! If she's hurt, you need to take her to the carrier ASAP, we'll need to retreat soon anyhow, you just get out of here and we'll cover for you!" It was Seer who called out and Glenn gulped before he nodded and pulled his plane away from the battle field and towards the aircraft carrier.  
  
One of the planes tried to follow but Shinji was able to shoot at it in order to stop it from moving any farther. "Nu uh" he said "That's as far as you go!"  
  
Seer was able to fire another missile while the plane was transformed. The plane then faced the missile and its cockpit then pulled down to create, what looked like a chest, making a head come out on the top. In the end the plane looked like a humanoid robot. Then it began to shoot at the missile and destroyed it.  
  
"It can transform again!" Seer yelled out as he pulled away. "How many transformations can this thing have!?" Shinji shook his head "We're not going to last very long if we keep fighting"  
  
Sky Eye decided to call in at this moment, "The Beach has been loaded with AA guns and SAMs, begin your retreat to the carrier, use the after burner's just get away from them as fast as possible.   
  
Seer nodded as he called out "All right, Shinji and I will cover for you. Everyone get the hell out!" All the planes began to leave while Shinji and Seer fired their missiles and guns towards the enemy. Nagassi and Meryl decided to stay and try to help.  
  
Once the others were safe enough away, they made their own retreat. They sped up together and the 5 enemy planes followed while firing. Only 100 kilometers from the beach and Meryl was hit suddenly by a few bullets. One of her engines were hit and he had a bullet go through her shoulder.  
  
She began to bleed, but then she began to sob hysterically. Seer couldn't look away. "Meryl! Meryl, calm down, just raise your speed and keep going, you're going to make it" Meryl continued to sob and sob, and the blood kept going out. She then heard over the radio, "Meryl, if you keep crying like this, you won't make it, you'll survive don't worry"  
  
Meryl began to calm down when her plane was suddenly giving the warning that she was being locked on. Then, an enemy plane fired a concussion missile. "Meryl! You have to dodge it, do it now!" but Meryl couldn't move. Her life began to flash before her eyes as she saw 6 white dots on her radar screen come closer and closer. She then closed her eyes and whispered "Jonathan, I'm coming"   
  
Then…  
  
"RAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" Another plane suddenly appeared and shot down all the missiles before flying right beside Meryl's plane. Then a man in a British accent spoke "Are you all right?" "Thomas, are we ever happy to see you!?"  
  
Suddenly, an explosion came and Meryl began to scream. Only 5 of the 6 missiles were destroyed, but one of them hit Meryls right wing. She then began to scream as she spiraled to her doom over the ocean.  
  
"Meryl! Meryl! Eject! Pull the Eject strap! Meryl, for the love of god, please! Pull the strap! EJECT!!!!" Finally Meryl stopped crying. She looked below, grabbed the lever that said Eject, and pulled it as hard as she could with her good arm.  
  
The cockpit suddenly came off and Meryl was sent flying over the ocean, then her parachute came out and she slowly came to the ocean water.  
  
"This is Carrier Granite, we see the parachute, we're sending the rescue team"   
  
G. Forces "There they are! All right men, open fire!"  
  
The ground then began to light up as missiles, and gun fire erupted and headed towards the yellow squadron. The planes that escaped soon made a quick turn and opened fire in order to pressure the Yellow squadron. Those planes soon had no choice but to back up and fly away.  
  
Thomas was running down the corridor, soon followed by Seer and Shinji. They finally entered a room where the black haired pilot of an F-18 slept peacefully. Thomas quickly went over to sit by her side and waited until she woke up.   
  
Once she did, she looked over to see Thomas, and Seer standing over her. They both suddenly smiled in relief as soon as they noticed that their comrade-in-arms was just fine. Thomas smirked "You worry me" Meryl sighed and looked straight at Thomas "You're too soft"  
  
Seer chuckled, then noticed that Shinji wasn't in the room. He looked down the hall but couldn't find him. He concluded that Shinji split up from them after running for a while.  
  
That assumption was correct as Shinji was looking for another friend of his. In a different room, Glenn was sitting besides the girl named Lily. Shinji knew that Glenn would need some help, and Kensuke wasn't going to be able to make it there for a little while. Lily had green hair just like Glenn, she was awake and Shinji could see her gray eyes.  
  
They both looked back to see Shinji standing at the doorway. He was panting hard as he looked over at Glenn and Lily. Shinji then took a seat and sat down on it, continuing to pant.  
  
Glenn stood up and was besides Shinji holding out his hand. Shinji looked confused for a moment before he stood up as well and shook Glenn's hand. Glenn then spoke "I am in your debt. If you hadn't stopped me, I wouldn't have gotten here on time and I would have lost my sister"  
  
Shinji blinked before he looked at the girl then back at Glenn. Seeing the resemblance, Shinji nodded and Glenn continued. "I wish to be in your service, I'll be under your command and take your orders, please!"  
  
Shinji sighed as he scratched the back of his head. The decision was ultimately not his. Not even Seer had that kind of power. Sure, they would both be promoted by the end of the day but it didn't make too much of a difference in power.  
  
Lily sighed in her bed as she began to nod off to sleep once more. Kensuke soon appeared and slapped Glenn right on the back. Glenn stumbled before he smiled at his CO.  
  
The battle was over and the ISAF forces had won. But the next battle would soon appear and they wondered if they were ready.

Preview: The name's Seer. Well, it seems that I've been promoted to corporal while Shinji has finally become Captain. What's more is that a new squadron has been made with 6 ace pilots. Me and Shinji included. They'll also be giving us all a new plane that has passed the testing part. And we'll be taking them on a test run into a natural fortress, but Stonehenge's firepower is in range. And what!? I get shot down!? Come see the next chapter on Winged Men

Short ending I know. But I'm working on it and a few other fics at the same time. Gasp Stress! Anyways, please review, and check on my new fic. If you know Now and Then, Here and There…..well I don't know if you'll love the fic but it was hard work. Although it isn't complete just yet. Anyhow I'll you all later  
  
Hawk Strife 


	7. New Squadron

Back to this story, I'll need to learn how to budget my time between all the stories I'm writing.

Stonehenge Attacks

Shinji was standing at attention inside a room. In front of him were 4 Admirals of the ISAF Navy, and two Generals of the Airforce. Shinji stood beside Seer, and down the line stood Touji, Kensuke, Thomas and Glenn. Shinji couldn't help but wonderâwhat in the name of God was going on?

One of the Admirals stood up slowly and began to speak to the 6 young men. "It has been decided that a new fighter group is to be made, and this group has to be the best of all squadrons that exist. Gentlemen, you six are that new fighter groupâyou will be given each a new plane that has just passed the testing stages. That plane is the X-02, don't take this plane lightly as it is one of the best planes that exists today, next to the plane you all encountered in your last mission."

Shinji cringed at the memory, but then a screen came on with schematics of an airplane and then the admiral continued "This plane has two main thrusters in its back. It is a single seated plane. And the wings, as you can see, move back as a normal plane would and then are bent forward. At a certain increase in speed, the parts of the wing that are bent forward will bend back into the rest of the wings. This will also trigger that the rudders on the back of the plane will flatten to the body of the plane. The planes wings will seem diamond shaped and it's turning will be dependant on the flaps that cover the two thrusters. Any questions?" The admiral waited for a response, after a brief moment of silence he continued"

"You won't get a mission todayâactually you're going to be relaxing today, and celebrating, but don't overdo it, tomorrow our next mission begins, and it will be our most difficult yet. Lt. Colonel Reins?"

Seer immediately answered back with the normal "Sir!" to which the Admiral continued "You will be leading this Squadron" "Thank you, Sir!"

--------------------------------------------

The newly appointed squadron of X-02 fighter Pilots, were now at a bar near the port where the aircraft carrier was now stationed. They were all drinking alongside the squadrons that were led by Nagassi and Shamrock, along with the other pilots in the squadrons left by Seer, Shinji, and Kensuke.

Shinji stood up all of a sudden and began to speak "Tomorrow we have one of our most important missions to date, as the Admiral saidâand very soon, we will be attacking the enemy capital. I certainly hope that all of us live long enough to see the end of this war"

Shinji sat down after nod or two from the rest of the people there, Seer then stood up "Well, now that I have nothing to say, because Shinji stole my speech" the pilots laughed as Shinji bowed "All I have to say is, let's take it easy today and celebrate, and know that if any of us goes down in the battleââif won't be in vain, we won't let any of your deaths go in vainânow let's not think about the warâlet's drink!"

The party went on for a little while longer before each of them called it quits with only a few near their limit in alcohol. The rest of the team went to their quarters to review their studies on their airplanes. They only had a couple of hours to learn how to use the plane and then they would be sent into the air.

-----------------------------------------------

"Good morning" Said the admiral inside the briefing room.

"I certainly hope you had a good celebration! Now that your loose, it's time that we prepared for our next mission" The screen behind the Admiral suddenly lit up and a map of a large piece of land could be seen. "This is the natural fortress that cuts off the shortest route to the capital. Our troops need to get through here, but there are too many dangers. There are plane reinforcements and a large number of enemy SAM's and AA guns, in short we need to level the ground and mountains of enemy objects."

"I am also sad to say, that this fortress is inside of Stonehenge's range. As soon as we give you the signal, you must lower your altitude to less than 2000 feet, know that the mountains are much taller than that so don't catch yourself in a spot where you'll regret attacking. This mission will be timed, after the mission's time is up, a group of Class-A Blackjack B-22s will fly out and bomb the three mountains. Your mission is to destroy anything you can find in order to make things easier for those enemy bombers. SAM's and Reinforcement planes will be your main objective. Once the bases have been leveled, we'll begin to send the troops by chopper to their next location"

The Admiral then walked away and a woman immediately stood up "Our new squadron will be led by Seer Reins, and they will be named Strike squadron" the woman then named the rest of the squadrons. "That is all, you have 30 minutes to debrief your wingmen, if necessary, then you'll move out"

--------------------------------------------------------

In the air and armed with their weaponry, the Strike squadron led the other squadrons towards the area of battle. "Strike Lead to all squadronsâ.report in!"

"Indigo Squadron on Standby!"

"Zeta Squadron on Standby!"

"Blade Squadron on Standby!"

"Gray Squadron on Standby!"

"Yate Squadron on Standby!"

"All right, get to your assigned quadrants and take out all enemy objects in that location, move out!" The other 5 squadrons split away from Strike squadron. Seer took a look around his cockpit and then checked his radar. "All right boys, our location is due East, we're taking out the airports in the fortress, ignore any and all enemy objects unless they are considered a threat to the current mission or that they are in the vicinity of the airport fortress. If so on both accounts, then engage and clear them out"

After saying his piece, Seer slowly changed his heading and kept his plane on cruising speed. He also lowered his altitude to a level 1500, the other fighters quickly followed. Shinji soon came up on the radio "These planes are pretty good, I've never felt such smooth movement in a plane"

"Yeah, guess we're lucky to get these planes, right Ken?" Touji was the first to respond to Shinji, and Kensuke responded soon after. "The computers on these planes are pretty advanced, although I have to admit, the enemy planes from the last mission must have been more advanced than even these" "With the ability to transform like that? Yeah, those planes must have some good computers"

"I agree with you Glenn, those planes are far more advanced than anything ISAF has ever made" "Hey! Hey!âyou're acting like the fight's over without a battle" Seer interrupted with an agitated voice "Those guys aren't that good, all we need to do is steal a few of their planes and then we'll be home free and on even ground"

"I hear that!" Shinji yelled out with a laugh. Seer chuckled a bit before he looked forward. He saw a large mountain ahead of them and looked up to see Yate Squadron flying much higher and at a faster speed. His radio began to pick up their transmissions. "Look at this place" "They built a baseâright HERE!!?!?" "It explains why the soldiers would have never stood a chance, this place is a natural fortress!"

Seer decided to get things serious as he called out "All right, Yate squadron cut the chatter and increase to attack speed! See if you can surprise those guys with a few good bombing runs!" "Roger that Strike Lead, we're on our way"

Yate Squadrons' F-14s were soon on the move and heading towards the fortress. "Strike squadron, lock and load, increase speed and lets get to that fortress!" The X-02s were soon on the move as well. They raised their altitude to a good 6000 feet. "We're gonna try something new today boys, lets stay together as a group, do your best not to separate."

Sky Eye soon called in order to report "Intel has told us that the airports are mostly for harriers and choppers. These air vehicles are deep into the mountain, drop a few bombs into the vertical caverns in order to destroy the enemy." "Roger that, all fighters, you heard the boss, be sure to take out SAMs in the area _before_ bombing the hangars."

"Does that include us?" Touji asked as they slowly gained altitude. "Don't worry, this area is mostly cleared all ready, we're just going to start scaring them a bitâall right boys, let'em loose, pickle!" the mid-ranged bombs were soon dropped over the hangar that held enemy planes. After a minute, the hangar was filled with a bright orange light, with smoke flowing out of it. The flames consumed many of the fighters there, but the battle was not over yet.

--------------------------

"Asuka?" Asuka looked behind her to see that her mother, Kyoko, was standing looking at the young woman with a look of worry. "Mom" "Come now, Asuka, what's worrying you?" Asuka turned around again in order to keep looking out the balcony of their house. She was staring at the ocean.

"I'mâjust a bit worried." "And what, young lady, are you worried about?" Asuka smirked a little as she shook her head. "Nothingâabsolutely nothing, I'll just go inside now." "He'll come back you know."

Asuka froze suddenly as she looked to her mother with wide eyes. Kyoko had a look of certainty and was now looking at the ocean beside Asuka "And so will the rest of them, they know better than to die out in that chaos." "It's just" Asuka's eyes began to water as she shook her head and shut her eyes tight "I haven't heard anythingâwhy can't they end the war faster."

"Because there are many things to take into account, after the supposed meteor strike that caused 2nd Impact, that monstrosity, Stonehenge, was created in order to destroy any others. I remember, I was part of the building team" "What!?" Asuka looked at her mother with wide eyes.

Kyoko nodded, "Yes, I was responsible for the creation of Stonehenge, I'm not in jail because I gave the outline of what I built in Stonehenge to ISAF. It seems that what I gave was not enough." Asuka nodded as Kyoko went on.

"They sent their best fighters to destroy Stonehenge, but something was added that wouldn't allow victory for the ISAF. A new enhancement, a jammer on missiles, this was responsible for the deaths of so many of those pilots. There was also the yellow squadron, all the squadrons could do was destroy one of those cannons. But now, they need to destroy it completely, just so that their on even ground."

Asuka nodded and looked towards the ocean once again before turning around completely and heading towards her room. She was lying down on her bed, and she began to dream. But just before she fell into a deep sleep, she saw her friends. Touji, Kensuke, Shinji and Seer, and even the new guy, Glenn. She saw them, as if it were a picture that they had posed for. After that, she fell into a deep sleep.

---------------------

"All fighters! Dive to below 2000 feet! Incoming from Stonehenge, move it now!" Seer and the rest of the Strike Squadron quickly lowered their altitude when they reached the lower plains. "So they finally decided to fire their big guns have they?" Seer said, as the Strike squadron continued to cruise. They all looked towards the sky and waited in silence, when suddenly streaks of light came down and exploded in the sky.

"That's Stonehenge!?" Kensuke yelled, "Those beams could destroy anything, and the long-range radio is pretty messed up now" Shinji began to listen in on the radio.

Krrrâre--atâsquad---âwiped outâkrr Shinji shook his head "I can't get very much from the radio" Kensuke nodded in his cockpit "I'll try to reroute the power in my radio"

Ken Krrr-Fighter on radio, say again, we don't copy!-Krrr 

Krrr-Indigo squadrons and Zeta squadron have been wiped out! 

"What!? That's Nagissa and Shamrock!" Shinji exclaimed when he heard, Seer's face darkened as he pulled his aircraft back towards the enemy location. "It's our job to avenge them and the pilots under their command, we'll take them all down!"

Strike squadron soon returned to their area of battle, they found that most of the hangars were already completely destroyed. "Sky Eye! We need some more targets" Seer yelled into his com-link as he waited for an answer. "Strike squadron, your new objective is to destroy the well-protected submarine base in the mountains, head to the coordinates now."

It didn't take long for Strike squadron to head in the correct direction. Each of them held their own hunger for revenge. Although they had known those pilots for only a few days, they were comrades and they had a promise to fulfill. Their deaths would not be in vain.

----------------------

"Sir! Enemy fighters heading this way, there's six of them" "Prepare to fire all anti-aircraft weaponry, the next rounds from Stonehenge won't take long" "Sir!" The soldier immediately went to fulfill his orders while the commander looked out the window of her outpost.

"We won't let those fighters destroy our submarines" She whispered to herself as she looked out the window. "Why do you fight alongside them sisterâwhy did you do that, Nagissa?"

The lights in her room suddenly began to flash red. "Begin jamming of the long-range communication!" Yelled the commander as she continued to look out her window. The building she stood in was set right beside the entrance to the submarine base. It was completely surrounded by 4 large plateaus, and the only way to enter was straight up or through the narrow and dangerous ravines that were set between each plateau.

The commander smirked as she looked over to her officers, knowing that the fighters coming wouldn't stand a chance. However, instead of glee in the faces of her soldiers, she found horror and fear. "What's going on!?" She yelled out, "T--th-eâour anti-airc--their goneâtheir being blown to pieces one by one!"

She looked up to see some flashes of yellow, and then saw 2 fighters that she had never seen before fly above her. She gritted her teeth and yelled again, "Tell the undercover SAM's to fire immediately!" 'You won't win' She thought next 'you won't win this battle sister'.

----------------------

"Seer, you've been locked on! Check left!" Seer didn't need any more encouraging before his plane banked left. He then began to look for the target. "Where was it coming from?" "It must be SAM's, I think their using the greenery to camouflage, I can't pick them up on radar either."

"Sky Eye! What do we do?"

KrrrrâKrrrrâKrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 

"What the hell!?" "Our signal must be being jammed, or at least the long-range signal is" Kensuke said as he swiveled his plane over the plateau in order to move away from a radar lock. "Any ideas?" Shinji's head suddenly raised as he spoke into his com-link.

"Seer! I'll take Kensuke and Thomas, and we'll try to get a signal out while taking the attention of the SAM's. You take Touji and Glenn, and take care of that Submarine base" "Now, you're thinking like a leader!" Seer said "All right, that's the plan, let's move quick before they really take us down."

Seer then led his two fighters into one of the ravines of the mountainous terrain. "Take out their fuel buildings in order to start the chaos, then we'll go after the main building."

"Copy that!"

"Roger"

"There are the fuel cells, open fire! Fox 2!"

"Fox 2!"

"There they go!"

The missiles from the three planes hit easily and destroyed three of the large tanks of oil and fuel. The fourth blew up on it's own from the intense heat generated.

"Strike lead, there are two submarine entrances" "Yeah! But there's only one main building, now make a quick leftâ.target up ahead, sweet lock! Fox 2!"

--------------

As the commander looked at the mayhem and the missiles heading straight towards her, she gave a few final thoughts. 'I seeâthese pilots will be legends very soon, and their incredible battle will be with the yellow squadron'.

Two of the three missiles exploded on the door of the submarine base and made the entrance begin it's crumble.

As the final missile headed towards her building,

A soldier yelled out "Missile contact in 3 seconds!"

she whispered "Nagassi,"

_2_

"are you waiting for me?"

_1_

"Or shall I wait for you?"

_0_

-----------------

The explosion of the building was the sign that the entire battle was hopeless for the Eurasians. The command building being destroyed, disconnected all communication between the building and the rest of the territory. The retreat was sounded, making planes and helicopters begin to fly away from the ISAF fighters. A few passed over the space between the 4 plateaus.

Seers eyes widened as he followed them. "Captain! Wait! Their retreating! Let them go!" Shinji yelled as he saw his good friend fly towards danger that could cost him his life. Shinji immediately turned his plane to follow his friend, when he saw a large amount of missiles fire out from the ground.

"Sh!!" Seer pulled up immediately and kept turning and turning on the seemingly endless barrage of missiles. Finally, after much timing and movement, Seer was able to pull out and was away from the area of SAM missiles. Seer was breathing heavily and had his eyes closed.

"Seer! Dive now! Stonehenge barrage in 5 seconds!" Seer's eyes widened as he suddenly put his plane into a straight dive. His heart pounded and there were beads of sweat forming on his forehead. His eyes were wide with determination and fright as he continued to dive at incredible speeds.

And thenââthe barrage came.

The shots of light coming from Stonehenge reached it's area of target, and the shockwave hit the Seer's plane hard. Seers plane lost a complete wing from the shockwave and his engines died. As his plane continued to freefall and spin at the same time, images of his parents and family came across his mind. He lightly smiled as he thought of them, but then another image came across his mind. An image so powerful, every fiber in his being screamed as he pulled the ejection straps. The image of Asuka Langley Soyhru crying in front of a graveâhis grave.

"NO! I will not die now!!!"

Seer was soon away from his doomed plane and was floating to the ground, but the shockwave of the last attack was not completely gone. Seer continue to fall at a fast rate, and the parachute soon ripped and made Seer hit the ground hard, knocking him out cold.

------

The events that continued after that were a blur to both Seer and Shinji. After Seer was picked up, they found that he had a broken arm, and was in no condition to fly a plane for a while.

Shinji knew that his friend would be incredibly distraught about that. Now, it was possible that the war would end with him in the bed. He would never agree to that, he would find a way to get back into the battle no matter what it would cost.

After that, time simply passed slowly in the rest of that day. Until Shinji heard the words that would change his life for some time, "1st Liutenant Shinji, you have been promoted to Captain, and you will now lead the Strike squadron for the next few missions, until it is decided whether or not, that Seer is able to lead ever again."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next time:

Hey, this is Seer. Yeah I know, broken arm, not able to fight. Anyhow, you'll see me pretty pissed off and then you'll see two missions being led by Shinji at the same time. It seems that a group of infiltrating soldiers may have found the weapons necessary to turn the tides against the Eurasians. But their taking so long to decide whether or not to use that, then by the time we use it, I'll be leading a squadron again. No really, I'm not kidding. Anyways, see the next chapter and review for our dear author.


	8. The Launching of Hope

I'm insane, I know, and I'm really late with this story. Sorry about this, but writer's block sucks and so do tests and school and homework, etc. I'll try to make this up to the people who read this fic, promise. Now back to work!

The Launching of Hope

"This is Striker Lead, landing on runway Bravo 2, over" "Roger that Striker Lead, you are cleared for landing" Shinji sighed as he piloted his X-02 plane over the runway and landed somewhat roughly. The Aircraft slowed down and eventually was taken to a hangar by an aircraft transporter. Shinji climbed walked on the ground as his aircraft was taken to a hangar.

His face showed signs of strong thinking, and his comrades noticed it as he approached them. "Shinji…you ok?" Touji asked, snapping Shinji out of his reverie. Shinji immediately nodded and smiled "I'm fine, just thinking about Seer…and the guys back home…" Touji nodded understanding and sat down on one of the crates that were placed as chairs for the Striker team.

Shinji sighed as he sat down besides Touji, "Anything new?" Kensuke nodded rapidly "Yeah! An enemy base was attacked yesterday by a small infiltration group, it's been predicted that it was from a Japanese organization, although we don't know which one" Shinji nodded and began to give some thought to the matter, but brushed it off, knowing that it didn't apply to them anyhow.

Glenn then spoke up "Captain, you should be sending a letter to Mana as soon as you can, they've been getting worried since you went on the last mission on your own." Shinji nodded slightly before he stood up, "Well I better get the letter ready now, I don't want to make her wait too much longer."

----------------------------

Shinji had no choice but to type out his letter to Mana, and then print it in order to send it. It was necessary, since e-mail or anything remotely instant was prohibited in order to protect the location of the ship. Also that the ship was not equipped with anything like internet or a phone line, save for the direct line to the ISAF HQ for the Admiral of the ship to use.

Shinji began to write out his letter to Mana, hoping to calm her and Asuka down about his situation and Seer's situation.

Dear Mana,  
It's been at least 2 weeks since Seer was shot down and I took leadership of the Striker squadron. Seer's doing well, and his arm should be completely healed in a week or so. Tell Asuka that once he heals I'm giving him back the command of the Striker squadron, because I can't take the pressure anymore. Especially these single plane missions that their thinking of doing more often. They sent me to do one of these missions. Our ground soldiers made a landing on a beach, and the enemy discovered our soldiers. They sent me to shoot down cruise missiles that were skimming the grounds, too low for AA guns and missiles to shoot down. If I failed, we would have kissed this war goodbye and I probably would have been part of the casualties. Seer is more confident for these high-pressured situations, but I can't take the pressure. I was so afraid of failing and letting down all those soldiers. Hopefully, Seer will get better soon and he can take command once more before we head towards the final battles of this war. Once this war is over, I'll come back home and I want to talk to you about something important. Tell Asuka that I've got his back, and he won't get hurt that badly anymore.

With Love,  
Shinji Ikari

Shinji looked over his letter and smiled as he printed it and folded it into an envelope. He placed it in the outgoing box for letters. As soon as he was able, he left the base and headed towards the hospital. Once he signed in, he knocked on one of the doors. Inside he saw Meryl and Lily sitting next to each other. He smirked as they waved at him and asked him to enter.

"How did the last mission go?" Meryl asked, Shinji sighed and gave a tired smile. "The mission was a success and I'm tired as hell, I'm heading over to Seer to tell him to heal really soon." Lily giggled slightly "Oh come on! Being a leader isn't so hard!" Shinji sighed, "I wish that was true, but enough about that, what's been going on with you two?" Meryl and Lily began to giggle.

Meryl was the one to start talking "Thomas, Kensuke and Glenn have been visiting us each day possible." Shinji chuckled, expecting Thomas and Glenn to react like this, but not Kensuke. "Why would Kensuke keep coming?" He asked to which Lily blushed as she answered "I'm not really sure, but I'm not complaining."

Shinji laughed, he then stood up slowly. "I wish I could stay longer but I have to check on Seer before I get as much sleep as I can before the next battle." And with that Shinji gave a wave and left the room.

After a bit more walking Shinji walked into another room, where his good friend sat up on his bed reading a letter with intensity. Seer's eyes looked up from the paper and looked over to his friend as Shinji sat down on a chair beside him. Seer passed Shinji the letter without a word, and Shinji took it with a confused look., and began to read.

Dear Seer,

When I heard that you had been shot down I panicked. I can't believe you would do such a thing, you should be more careful! But as long as all you have is a broken arm, then I suppose you'll heal up quickly and be able to head back into that war. Don't ever scare me like that again, never, I mean it! And make sure that someone takes care of you until you get back here. I'm not going to take it if you go, I just can't. Please come back one day, in one piece.  
Love Asuka

Shinji smirked at the letter as he looked over at his friends grinning face. "Never thought I'd get one of these" Shinji laughed at his friends statement. "I guess I'm feeling pretty lucky right now" Seer said as he looked up at the ceiling. Shinji smirked and asked "Why are you still in the hospital room, with just a broken arm?" Seer sighed "They say I got a small concussion from the landing, and that they need to keep testing in order to make sure I'm still healthy, you know how it is…"

Shinji shrugged when his watch began to beep. "Time to get some sleep before the next mission, have a good rest Seer" Seer waved his friend off, as Shinij walked out. The sun was beginning to set and Shinji was in desperate need of a rest, he hoped that there wouldn't be any nightmares on that night.

------------------------------

In the darkness, the outline of a base with snow on the grounds could be seen. The buildings seemed deserted, but there was some sign of life along the bases edges and in the hangars. A small group of black figures quickly ran towards the gates and went inside the dark base.

There was no noise to be heard, no steps, no gunfire, nothing. The only thing that could be heard, was a small number of silencer shots going off in the darkness.

Then, when darkness came again, and no signs of life could be seen at all. The black figures came out again. "Red Leaf…Mission complete…awaiting pick up of the prizes."

--------------------------------

Shinji woke up to a knocking on his door. "Captain Ikari! You're presence is requested in the briefing room!" Shinji yawned and stretched as he answered "I'm on my way!" Shinji immediately got dressed and picked up a piece of bread to eat on the way.

Shinji's uniform and his rank decorations were clearly seen. As Shinji entered the briefing room, he noticed that there were a few other squadron leaders in the room. A general also stood in front of all the squadron leaders.

"Fighters! The next mission is a crucial one to our war plans. The soldiers must be coordinated enough to attack the enemy's stronghold. We need to send a satellite into orbit in order to communicate with our soldiers and give them better coordinated attacks. It will also give us a better map of the location. The problem is that this location will be easily seen from the enemy stronghold. This will be a major dog-fight between our Air force, and theirs. The mission is not to defeat all of the planes but to drive them off away from the satellite launch location."

"Expect many aces to be present, also expect for the Yellow squadron to be present as well. There's nothing we can do about the yellow squadron except for hoping that we can damage a few of them in order to make them retreat. That is all, dismissed"

---------------------------

After going into the air and refueling, the fighter squadrons reached their destination. The ISAF planes held over 40 planes of different styles as a total. The Strike squadron flew in the lead with the many other squadrons behind. They had a visual of the large island, and could see the launching platform with the rocket.

The squadrons soon received a call from the HQ at the launch platform "ISAF fighters, we have readings of many enemy fighters coming in. You have been given permission to engage the enemy fighters, use caution and know that any updates in the battle will be relayed to all fighters as soon as they are received."

Shinji gave a slight nod "Strike lead here, we read you loud and clear. All fighters lock and load." Shinji began to lead his squadron on a pathway around the island as he searched for the enemy fighters.

It wasn't long before the horizon began to fill up with many black dots that grew larger, and received the shape of many planes. Shinji's eyes hardened as he saw the many enemy fighters nearing the launch site. "All fighters, scramble! Traffics gonna be heavy out here, so try to cover for each other." The many ISAF fighters soon broke off from the formation.

"The Eurasian fighters have brought the Yellow squadron with them, use caution" Shinji exclaimed as he piloted his aircraft towards a yellow nosed fighter. "Remember, they can transform and can have a strong advantage when transformed." As Shinji fired a missile at his yellow nosed target, the fighter transformed and shot the missile before it got too close.

Shinji frowned as he tried to think of another strategy in order to shoot down that strange aircraft. The Yellow squadron fighter was in it's humanoid form and was firing at Shinji while hovering in a stationary spot in the air. Shinji's eyes suddenly widened as he dived in order to fly below the yellow squadron fighter's position.

Shinji suddenly pulled up and fired on the enemy above him, using missiles and bullets. The Yellow squadron fighter had no choice but to adjust before it fired on the missile, but it was too late anyway. The bullets made their mark and the missile hit one of the legs of the fighter.

--------------------------------

Yellow Squadron Fighter "Damn! I'm hit! Who was it that shot me!?" The injured plane tried to fly away from the attack and could barely move away thanks to having only one leg with the thrusters. "It's that one! The new squadron of fighters, we've already seen them! They can't be underestimated!"

"All Yellow squadron fighters pull back and engage from a distance if possible"

--------------------------------

"A Yellow squadron fighter was hit, it's slowly retreating with a blasted thruster, who's kill was that?" Shinji smirked as he heard this, and pulled his fighter towards another enemy plane as he fired a missile. The plane exploded in a ball of orange flames, with some shrapnel falling from what was left.

"3 fighters are heading towards the launch, stop their advance!" Shinji was about to call in but another fighter beat him to it, "Glenn here, we'll take care of it Shinji! Touji, Thomas your with me!"

Glenn took pulled his plane towards the launch platform and noticed a squadron of three F-18 Eurasian planes heading towards the rocket. "Touji, Thomas, this should be easy. We'll meet them head on and fire with our missiles and guns." Glenn did as he said and flew head on with the Eurasian planes.

"Open Fire!" A barrage of missiles and bullets were soon sent towards the three F-18's. A number of explosions could be heard as the three planes exploded beside each other.

"That wasn't hard at all!" Glenn said as he flew away from the wreckage.

"All fighters, we need fighters to head towards the west, a squad of bombers are heading this way!" Touji checked his radar and after flicking a few switches shook his head and called in "My scope shows negative, I don't see anything" "They're there all right, but they're stealth fighters, head towards the west quickly."

Shinji called in "I can't get going, I have to fight the Yellow squadron, Touji and Kensuke will stay with me. Glenn, I want you to take Thomas with you to take out those bombers." "Roger that Captain, we're on our way!"

Shinji looked back at the retreating two fighters, and saw them change their bearing. Shinji continued to patrol the airspace around the launch site followed by Kensuke and Touji. "Hey Knight! How is the mission going? Will it be over soon?"

Shinji shook his head "Doesn't matter. We just need to fight the enemy off and survive." "Roger that, I understand"

"This is AWACS unit Sky-Eye. All fighter pilots, we the launch will begin in 1 minute 30 seconds. A new flight of enemy planes are on their way to the launch site from all sides. Attack them immediately! This launch must succeed!"

"All right people! You heard him, split up and head towards the enemy planes. Engage at will!" Shinji shouted through as he piloted his plane towards the edge of the island in order to get a glimpse of the incoming enemy.

"Glenn do you have a visual?" "Negative! Nothing so far, let's keep going though, they should be at a high altitude!" "Roger."

Glenn held the throttle to his plane and kept it as steady as possible at the high speeds he was reaching. It wouldn't be long before they came head on with the enemy bombers. At that thought, he noticed five black lines.

"I've got a visual!" He yelled, "I see them too, confirmed five B-2 stealth bombers approaching at high speeds" "Roger that Thomas, open fire once their in range and then we'll circle around to finish them off!" "Roger that, Fox 2!"

The two X-02 planes fired off a missile each. It hit dead on and two B-2 bombers began to lose altitude with flaming cockpits. The three remaining bombers continued on, unhindered by the sight of their downed comrades. Glenn and Thomas circled around easily before trying to catch up with their targets.  
-  
Enemy Bomber "We've got bogeys on our tail, we can't hold them off!" "Stop worrying, pull yourself together and initiate evasive maneuvers!"

The three remaining bombers began to separate from each other, and increased their speed. "If we can outrun them, then there's nothing to worry about" The two X-02 planes could be seen raising altitude. "Why are they going up?" "Don't worry, maybe they've given up, just concentrate on you're mi-" The console on the Bomber captains plane began to beep.

"I've been locked on…" He whispered to himself as he checked his visual radar. The two X-02 planes were now lowering their altitude in a 45 degree angle dive. Their speed was enough to catch up with the bombers and they had locked on to the lead bomber.

"damn…" -  
"Splash one bogey!" Glenn said as his missile hit the bomber. "Thomas here, in position and locked on, Fox 2!" Another missile could be seen penetrating the outer hull of the second B-2 bomber, along with the explosion of the engine. The last B-2 bomber went down without any other problems.

"This is Glenn, Striker 5, to Sky-Eye. Enemy bombers destroyed, returning to the launch site." "Roger that, confirmed kill on the enemy bombers, the launch is in 30 seconds, you might want to hurry up" "Will do!"

Shinji flew around the launch site to continually check for damages, but found none and returned to searching from enemy fighters. "Sky-Eye to Striker 2, Pull out from the launch site, 15 seconds to launch!" "Roger!"

Shinji pulled his plane away from the launch site but made sure to get a good few of the launch. He could see the white clouds begin to form at the bottom of the rockets. And then the countdown was heard.

"Launch in T-minus, 8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1.…Ignition!"

Soon the white rocket began it's launch and raised from the platform slowly but began to raise speed and altitude. Shinji never looked away, and kept looking until only the long trail of white smoke could be seen in the end.

"This is the Control Center, the launch is successful!" Over the background, the voices of the rest of the control center could be heard whooping and cheering. "Great job pilots!"

Shinji smiled and flew around a few more times, seeing that the enemy was beginning their retreat. "Should we follow?" Called in Jessie, "No, don't go after them. We've done enough for today…"

"Roger that Striker lead" Shinji looked back at the sky and then focused and organizing the planes so that they could return to their bases in one piece. "Hey Shinji!" Shinji looked at his radio as he returned "You shouldn't be using the name for a commanding officer Hacker, but what is it?" "Did you see that F-22 fighter? The one that took down a large amount of enemy fighters?"

Shinji looked back at his recent memory of the battle and noticed that there was another call that another yellow squadron fighter had taken damage. It was just after Shinji had gotten a hit on another yellow squadron fighter.

"Sky-Eye, this is Striker lead, who was the other fighter that shot a yellow squadron fighter?" "Mobius 1, the black F-22 with a ribbon on it's wings" "Roger that Sky-Eye, much obliged."

"Someone out there talkin about me?" Shinji laughed as he flew his plane beside the only black F-22 in the entire Air Force. "Striker lead here, just here to say good job Mobius 1" "Roger that Striker lead, same to you"

As the fighters returned to their bases, a call came through from the Mobius 1. "Uh…Captain Ikari?" "Yes Mobius 1, something on your mind?" "They've just told me that I'm to be stationed at you're base for a while, I'll need some help in finding the base though."

"No problem Mobius 1, just fall into our formation, and we'll get you there safe and sound." "Roger thanks a lot Captain." Shinji smiled as he looked back to see the black fighter fall into formation with the rest of the group.

"I what Seer's gonna think, having an ace like Mobius 1 in our formation, and him in a hospital bed." The black F-22 seemed to falter a bit before a voice came up "Oh come on, I really don't think I'm that good…" Jessie's laugh could be heard through the speaker "I never expected the great Mobius 1 to be a shy and modest fighter pilot."

Mobius 1 laughed nervously as Shinji began to speak "Don't worry about it, besides this'll just make Seer want to get back into the air quicker. You better watch out, Seer could be just as good as you if he gets the chance." "I get the feeling the same could be said about you, Captain Ikari."

Shinji grinned but did not answer, he didn't feel the need to.

---------------------------------

After the formation had made their landings, each of the pilots went out to meet with the Mobius 1 pilot. The said pilot was climbing down the ladder to his cockpit when everyone went to meet him. The pilot took off his helmet to show a head of short brown hair, and a roughly shaven chin. He looked over at the other pilots and grinned as he walked over to them.

"1st Lieutenant David Bartlett at your service" He said as he saluted. "Welcome to the base Lt. Bartlett" Shinji stated as he returned the salute. "Hope you have a good time while stationed here."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Touji here, and we've got some news for you. Seer's back in business and he's taken the lead once more. What's more is that we're receiving new planes to test out. Nothing but surprises, because we also have a new location to get to. Another country has decided to start to try and take over the world with all the chaos that's going on. It's up to the Striker squadron to take care of this new problem, but it won't be easy. This time we have a couple of new allied countries in order to help us out. As for David Bartlett, the famous Mobius 1, he'll continue to make a name for himself around ISAF HQ while we make a name for ourselves in this new war. Hope to see you there!

Sorry this is really late…I'm doing badly in organizing enough for this. I'm starting to get tired to but I know that writing is something that I'll keep working on. 


	9. To Belka 'I'

Ok here is the next installment. Sure hope this story continues to you're likings.

The Beginning of the Belkan Conflict

"Are you kidding me?" Touji stared at the towering hunks of metal that stood in front of them. "This does seem a bit difficult comprehend" Thomas said to which Kensuke could only nod. In front of them and the rest of the Striker squadron, stood 6 new vehicles.

Three planes, the same type as the ones the Yellow Squadron used. A repairer, a medic type vehicle equipped with enough tools that could put a small plane back together from scrap. And finally two humanoid machines with two large cannons at the end of each arm, and a missile pod integrated into the shoulders.

"Quite the arsenal, don't ya think?" Each head turned to see the General of the base. A middle aged and graying man in uniform. "We received these machines as a type of gift from an unknown group, besides these machines we also have two more gigantic machines. The planes have been named the Veritechs, they can transform from plane to the half-plane half-humanoid form called Guardian, and finally the completely humanoid form called the Battleloid. The medic has been named the R-Mechan, and the humanoid "tanks" are the Destroids. The other two large units we have are named the Goliaths."

"And the ones right in front of us…who's going to use them?" Shinji asked, "Well you are of course!" The General said with a laugh. Shinji stood dumbstruck by those few words. "Oh, and Seer should be here soon, so he'll be taking one of these vehicles as well."

"Seer's cleared to fight again?" Glenn half-shouted in surprise, "Oh don't be too surprised to have me back in the squadron." The voice echoed from the entrance of the hangar, where the young US American stood with confident grin.

Each of the members were glad to see Seer up on his feet and ran over to welcome him back into the squadron. "Easy guys," Seer said nervously "It's not like I died or anything." "I'm glad that you six will be happy to be working together, because the next missions that are coming up for you will be tough."

Everyone had calmed down by then, and a tense air could be felt throughout the hangar. "It seems that Belka, the warring nation between Osea and Yuktobania, has declared war again and is trying to establish an empire. Since this is in fact, a threat to the world, we are obligated to take part, but all we can do is send you and a few soldiers to aid them. Our own war is also taking it's toll on us and we can't let go of many soldiers. You will be leaving at 14:00, dismissed!"

"These new planes work great!" Shinji exclaimed as he moved to the right and to the left. The transport plane ahead of them held the other three pilots and their vehicles. "Easy there Knight, let's try to stay calm until we reach the base."

"Roger that Striker-Lead! I copy!" "Hey Boss," Touji could be heard from the radio of the transport plane, "Where exactly are we headed?" "The Belkan attack will affect Yuktobania and Osea the most, we'll be landing in Osea."

Shinji chuckled slightly "Captain, I think he's asking where exactly, as in where is it?" Seer couldn't hold back a laugh before he finally answered "It's three of the few countries that were recreated after the second Impact. Osea took in much of Italy and countries just north of it, Yuktobania was made from a small amount of Northern Africa. Belka was created from parts of lower Europe; including Spain, Portugal, and other countries around them."

"Oh I see, and Osea is going to be our destination?" Touji asked "Yup" replied Shinji clearly as they continued their flight. "Has anyone read the manual for this contraption?" Thomas suddenly called through, Seer slightly nodded "The controls aren't that different from a normal plane, I've tried the transformations, they're not that tough to master. Just make sure you study the manual and you'll be fine." "Roger, thank you for the information."

Kensuke banged his head while he tuned up his R-Mechan, as he rubbed his head he called in "Hey, what about David? You think he'll be sent here too?" "They'll probably finish the war there sooner than this one, so he'll probably come join us soon."

"It'll be good to fight alongside him again…" Kensuke said quietly as he got back to work. "Yeah, you can say that again…Hey Glenn! You've been pretty quiet, what's up?" "I'm sorry Captain Reins, I've been…thinking…about my sister and……" "…And?"

"Someone very special to him!" Touji said in a teasing tone of voice. "No! It's j-just a…a good friend of mine…" Glenn half-shouted desperately. "I bet it's Rei, lord knows, he had a good time with her while on leave" Seer said while he tried to contain his laughter.

"Hey, Calm down back there! We're getting close to the landing point!" "Roger that, Transport, we copy!"

"Welcome to Osea my friends! It is a pleasure to have you at Shore Trove base!" An official stated as he gave Seer a bear hug. "I-It's go-ooood to be here" Seer strained to say as his ribs began to force his lungs to shrink. Once the official had let go, Seer was breathing heavily as the large official introduced himself, "I am Oslav of the Yuktobanian Navy, a pleasure to be working with you!"

Oslav was an unnaturally tall man with bushy black hair and a long nicely trimmed beard. He was also pretty big, not just in height, but in his arms and chest. Fortunately he was very good natured and was friends with everyone on the base.

Oslav took them to the Aircraft carrier that would act as their base when they had begun their move against Belka. The USS Kestrel of the Osean navy, there they met the acting Admiral and his second in command. The Admiral was known as Johran, while the second in command was Lt. Admiral Andersen. Johran was an aged man with what seemed like years of experience etched in every wrinkle. He was completely bald and had a finely groomed white mustache.

Lt. Admiral Andersen was a slightly younger man, but his hair was beginning to gray. He didn't have as much experience as the Admiral but he was well on his way. After a quick salute each of the warriors began to talk to each other about what their next mission would be.

"Hey Mana!" Hikari was running down the sidewalk, towards her mahogany brown haired friend. Mana turned around as Hikari began to slow to a walk in order to catch her breath, before she asked "What are you doing here Hikari?" "I got a message from a pilot, they told me about Shinji and the others!"

"What did they say?" Mana exclaimed, clearly intrigued by the sudden news. "They've been reassigned, they're going to be fighting a different war!" Mana gasped slightly as she looked down to the ground "Their fighting Belka…" "What's wrong?"

"Belka has been increasing their industrial strength for the past 10 years, their not going to be an easy enemy…" "But Belka has always lost before, and now they have the allies Yuktobania and Osea to help them."

"Yuktobania and Osea? They haven't been allies since the Second Impact!" Hikari smiled slightly "Well, they have a common enemy to face, they're ready to fight alongside each other for the end of this war."

"…Who gave the message?" "Some pilot who met the guys….umm, Barlett. David Bartlett." Mana's eyes widened once she heard the name "THE Bartlett! Geez, it's one surprise after another!"

"Surprises that you are pretty aware of, while we're left out of the loop…" Mana froze for a second, before she turned around and saw the red haired beauty, Asuka, stand behind her with an annoyed look. "Now spill! How are you getting this information? And what more do you know that we don't?"

Mana began to back away from Asuka but only managed to bump into Hikari and found herself trapped. "Umm…well you see, I get my information from a few old friends…you know? And Barlett is one of the greater Aces in the ISAF Air Force, also known as Mobius one. And lastly…Belka made a new weapon for Eurasia, one that's stronger than Stonehenge according to the beliefs of my friends, which means that Belka must have something up their sleeve as well."

Once Mana finished, she was looking down, not wanting to see the look in the eyes of her friends because of this hidden information. "Guess this means that they'll come back heroes after all!" Mana's head shot up once she heard that statement come from Asuka. She couldn't believe her ears, but Asuka had said that, and she was smiling.

"Don't worry Mana, they'll come back once both wars are done with." Hikari stated with a compassionate expression. Mana nodded slightly as Asuka suddenly yelled, "Now! Let's get to a Café and get something to eat, I'm starved!" Mana smiled as she looked back "I sure hope that Shinji is all right…"

-

"Achoo!" "You ok Shinji?" Seer asked, Shinji nodded and smiled. "Anyhow gentlemen, this mission is important if we are to have an equal advantage against the Belkans, they can also help the ISAF incredibly."

"Well, since it's a city, it'll be difficult to limit the casualties. It's civilian right?" "And it's Osean as well, which means we don't want any casualties…thankfully, we will be trying to begin an evacuation while you're attacking from one edge. Hopefully, the Belkans won't be able to move fast enough and the people will escape."

Touji nodded slowly at the Admiral's plan. "Anything else we need to worry about?" Kensuke asked "Since it's the factory for all the Newtech vehicles, as we've decided to call them now, there will be a number of pilots using these machines against you." Andersen stated as calmly as possible before continuing "We will be sending more than a few tanks and soldiers to assist you, but against that type of technology, you are our only hope."

"I'm starting to understand why we were picked for this reassignment" Glenn whispered, Seer then stood up. "Well gentlemen, I think that's all the information we need, we'll commence the operation when you're ready." Seer gave a salute and walked out with the rest of the squadron.

"What a mission this is going to be!" Touji said as he stretched from not moving around. "It will be helpful, we could use at least one Newtech factory, and the Belkans have a lot of them, we need to start equaling the odds here." Kensuke stated before he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.

"I think this'll be fun" Each head turned to where Shinji stood, he wore a grin on his face as he stated "It'll be our chance to try out our new machines." "I have to agree with Shinji here, I think this is gonna be a good test for us." Seer said as he patted Shinji on the back.

It was done. Each of the squadron members headed to their machines to give them a last minute tune up. It wasn't long before the siren for the start of the mission sounded and the three planes, two destroids, and one R-Mechan prepared for the departure to the battlefield.

"How do you think he's doing?"

"I'm sure he's fine…he'd never give up the battle, he's like you in that way"

"…Will he come back?"

"Our little gift can ensure that, as long as he doesn't do anything reckless"

"Gendo…if you're wrong about this…I'll consider it a second betrayal……and you know what that will mean, don't you?"

"Yes Yui, I understand…I have…faith…in that boy…he will come through"

"For your sake, you better hope so"

"Oh trust me, I do"

-

"Transport 1 to Striker Squadron, we're coming over the city now. The mission is starting, the Veritechs are to enter the city and try to secure the ground area while the ground machines parachute to the ground"

"This is Striker-Lead, call sign Blood, roger that!" "The operation commences now!"

Seer, Shinji, and Thomas began their quick descent to the city. If they were to look up, they would see the back of the transport plane open up.

"Looks like the battle's already started, no Newtech vehicles though. They've been able to hold up, but they need you're back up immediately." "Roger that, we're on our way. Shinji, those guys are yours, me and Thomas will go into the city to take out any other enemy forces you might go up against."

"Roger that Captain, I'm on my way" Shinji broke away from his two comrades and skimmed the earth before he transformed into Battleloid mode and landed beside the ground allies. He knelt his machine down and began to snipe at the enemy tanks and pillboxes blocking the pathway for the allied soldiers.

G Forces "I'm happy we've got these guys with us" "I copy that, we need to think of a name for them, you know?" "Later! We've got a fight on our hands!" "Yes Sir!"

Shinji smiled slightly as he fired on the tanks that were trying to reach firing range. He then noticed many lights, quickly shooting through the sky "Enemy Artillery fire! Get down!"

The artillery fire soon crashed to the ground and exploded around the soldiers and around Shinji's veritech. Then a explosions sounded from the metallic shoulder of the veritech.

Shinji fell to the ground from the force of the attack, before the ground force commander yelled out "The path is clear enough, get inside, it's safer than being out here!"

As the soldiers began their run to the inside of the city, Shinji pulled his veritech into a standing position and transformed into the Guardian mode. He hovered above the soldiers and checked every corner before moving on. The black spot on the left shoulder was easy to see but hadn't done any electrical damage.

"Where are the ground Machines?" "We're right here!" Touji landed his Destroid on the street and looked began to patrol the area in order to find enemy tanks. Glenn landed near the soldiers and stayed there to keep a lookout for them. Kensuke came to begin repairs on Shinji's veritech.

"You took quite a beating." "I got lucky, artillery fire is hard to survive from." "Yeah but just adding a plate of armor will have you right as rain, there isn't any electrical damage so you're safe."

"Good, 'cause we've got problems." Seer called in, followed by Thomas "I confirm, we've got Newtechs coming out of the factory doors, this battle just got hectic!" "Roger that Skimmer, I'm on my way!" "You're cleared Shinji, go get'em"

Kensuke backed off as Shinji moved the veritech through the empty streets in order to reach the location of his other two veritech comrades. The three ground Newtechs watched as their friend moved away on the radar. "Tank, I think we might get some Newtech visitors soon." "Roger that…What was you're call sign?" "Uh…Razor" "Right, Razor, I'll keep an eye out, the soldiers need our protection until they reach their target"

"How are they going to get there?" Kensuke looked down at the soldiers as he asked, he didn't see any transport vehicles near them, all the soldiers were preparing a stronghold with whatever they could find at the moment.

The Ground Force commander then spoke up "I'm sorry, but that artillery fire caught us off guard, we don't have anything to move us, we'll have to walk to the target." "And what exactly is you're target?" Touji, finally coming back from his patrol, stopped his destroid in near the Ground forces.

"We need to capture the Belkan factory that's in this city. To do that, we need to find the control center and take over that to stop the machines from producing any more until the factory itself is secure."

"The Control center might not be in the factory" Kensuke stated after he adjusted his glasses and his helmet. "That's what we thought too, but we can't just go searching around looking for the control center, the soldiers might be too weak to fight after that."

"Any ideas?" Glenn asked hoping for an answer. Kensuke then smirked "I think I have one…"

"Shinji, where are you?" "I'm coming, but I won't risk anymore hits from AA guns by raising my altitude!" "Right, well…hurry it up! I don't think we can keep this up for very long."

Seer and Thomas were each in Battleloid mode and were hiding behind buildings. Past those buildings, the factory with open doors could be seen, and Five destroids stood firing continuous shots without any sign of stopping.

"Captain! These buildings won't be able to last much longer under this type of fire!" "I know, but we can't move until someone shoots those trigger happy Belkans!"

"You rang?"

The five destroids began to turn before shots came from the side destroying 1 and crippling another at the legs. Thomas and Seer saw the signs and began quickly moved out from behind the buildings to start firing on the destroids.

As soon as the 5 smoldering chunks of metal were confirmed, the three veritech pilots came together in order to decide on a new plan. "There's bound to be more enemies inside the factory" "I know that Knight, but we don't have any news on the ground forces, it could be a while before they find the control center and shutdown the production of these machines for a while, they might have unmanned Newtechs in there. If that were it, then we'd would have a number of enemies that would keep getting bigger while we fought"

"And we can't destroy the factory either. It's necessary for us to use this factory for our own war effort." Thomas breathed easy after saying his small part, the next move would be important. Stay outside and risk a difficult capture or a sudden attack by many Newtechs. Or charge in and risk encountering a continually growing amount of enemies with no sign of stopping and the potential damaging of the factory.

"Well, how are the ground forces doing anyhow?" Shinji asked as he began to call up Touji. "Krr…This is Tank…We're putting a plan in action…standby until we find the control center…Krrr…Radio talk is dif-krrr-lt, we'll ca-krrrrrrrrrrrrr" "Damn not this again, another freaking jamming 'session'"

"I feel for you Shinji but we're going to have to trust them, me and Skimmer will set up a barricade, Knight I want you to take a good sniping spot…keep us covered" "Roger that Captain!"

Shinji quickly raised his altitude with a quick boost and landed on the flat roof of a tall building. Shinij could tell that if he was spotted, he would be a clear shot to a small line of fire. Shinji would need to make sure that no enemy's got past the doorway in order to protect himself and his friends.

Shinji switched to sniper mode and aimed his scope at the opening of the factory. Shinji began to tense slightly as he noticed a shadow pass by the entrance, and focused on keeping his eyes open. A robotic leg took a step through the opening of the factory. A destroid with four cannons finally came out, and just as suddenly, it fell down with a ruptured head. -

Ground Forces "All soldiers, move away from the destroids and get behind the buildings!" Touji quickly ran his destroid forward and turned the waist around the corner in order to fire at a group of enemy tanks. "They're everywhere! Sky-Eye, I need that scan!"

"Just a few more seconds Striker-4, we're almost done!" Touji checked his own scanners and noticed that more enemies were moving slowly through the streets between each building. Each enemy was easy to defeat, but protecting the soldiers and moving quickly through the streets to protect them was the difficult part. Even with Glenn as his partner, and Kensuke giving him a good scan of the enemies in the area, it wasn't enough.

"This doesn't look good! We're getting bogged down by the enemy!" "Glenn! Hang tight, just hold'em off a little longer!" Touji was quick to spin his destroid around and open fire down a narrow street, towards a mech of the same build as the destroid. It fell to the ground, and soon exploded on the ground.

"Great…Newtechs…" "What?" Glenn's face was covered in sweat. His helmet was soaking his hair, and now he had more problems and enemies to deal with. "Sky-eye to Tank! Scanning ended, condensed radio activity noticed near the plaza, point AD" "What's the heading?" "Direct heading is 46, due NorthEast" "Roger!"

Ground Forces "Did you hear that?" "Yeah! Get ready to move people, we have a location!" "Jason, move away from there!" Touji could do nothing more than wonder how he could get from the place he was in, to the place where he and the soldiers needed to be. "Ground Force Captain! Give me a status report!" "Our forces have had a minimal amount of casualties, if we make a run for it we can make it" "Roger, all troops prepare to move out!"

"Hacker in position to assist the carrying of troops" "Can you do that Ken?" "Don't worry Tank! There's a transport room for the soldiers on the back, but I'll need you're support" "Razor here, you got it Hacker!" "I'll be able to help too, just get the soldiers inside and get ready to roll the R-Mech out of here"

Kensuke quickly came down from the top of a small building and kneeled his R-Mech down, three doorways came down and extended bridges. "Get in, quick!" The soldiers quickly began to run towards the inside of the machine, some carrying wounded soldiers.

"3 minutes until I'm ready!" "Right! Razor?" "You got it boss!" Touji and Glenn quickly began to run through the streets and took sharp turns using the boosters below the feet part. They continually fired on enemy tanks and destroid units without stop. Touji continued to run through what seemed like a clear street, until a destroid suddenly slid into his sight from his right. The enemy destroid fired, and before Touji could retaliate, his right cannon fell to the ground. Touji quickly fired a few rounds from his left cannon, and included a few missiles. The enemy destroid took the force of each cannon-shot and missile, but continued to stand after the smoke was cleared.

"Damn!"

The enemy destroid raised its cannons to aim straight at Touji's slightly damaged destroid. Touji quickly began to fire again, but then his right leg failed and he fell to the ground. Even though he was down, Touji continued to fire on the enemy destroid. Small explosions, dents and cracks in the armor began to appear one by one with each shot coming from Touji's only working cannon.

The enemy destroid finally fell when an explosion sounded around the chest, where the cockpit was built. The destroid fell forward slowly with staggering steps. Touji breathed deeply and checked his destroid's status.

"Tank are you ok?" "My right leg is shot, and I lost a cannon" "Don't worry Tank, Hacker here, I'm on my way for repairs!" "Forget it, you need to drop off the soldiers, then come and get me, I'll be able to stand up after a while. I still have a cannon to fight back with."

"……All right, but it's gonna be quick!" "Good!"

"Sound's like Touji's out of the action for a while" "We'll need to send some back up with Hacker when he goes to look for Tank." "Yeah I'm for that!" "Ok then, Knight we're almost done with the barricade, I'll send Skimmer on his way. Knight, you're staying with me."

"Why's that?"

Seer viewed the entrance of the factory and got a good look at the six new enemy destroids that lay on the ground. Some with ruptured heads, others with ruptured cockpits. "There's no way I'm letting you go with those sniper skills you have."

Shinji smiled, he continued to point his scopes at the entrance of the factory, but nothing more would come, at least for a while. "Skimmer here, my side of the barricade is done!" "All right, get going to give Ken some cover, and keep low!" "Roger that Captain"

"Knight here, I'm comin' down!" "Shinji quickly got back into his sniper mode, with more confidence since he had cover in case he missed. Seer did the same on the other side of the barricade and both kept their scopes on the entrance to the factory. "Here they come!"

Four destroids then came out from the entrance of the hangar, or at least, they looked like destroids. However these didn't have any cannons for arms, but they packed incredibly large shoulders with lids. "Are those what I think they are?" "I think so Seer."

Then each new destroid opened the lids of their shoulders to show missile pods harboring 20 missile for each shoulder. "Oh Shit! Take cover!"

Seer and Shinji quickly piloted their Veritech's to use their barricades as well as possible. Most missiles hit the barricade while the rest either hit a building or flew right over the barricade and hit the street behind Seer and Shinji.

"Blood! On three! We get up and open fire on the missiles!" "Good plan!" "Ok…1-" "3!" Both Veritechs suddenly appeared from behind the barricade in the perspective of the new destroids.

Captain John Gamilton would need to praise the workers for finishing the Tomahawk destroids, the ISAF/Osean forces were no match for these new weapons.

At least Gambilton thought that, before the Veritechs suddenly came up from behind the barricade and opened fire. Gambilton suddenly began to fire more missiles, but one of the Tomahawks was already falling to the ground, and another had lost a shoulder missile-pod.

"T-Bones 2 and 3, get around the barricade and destroy the Veritech fighters. I'll hold them here for a while." "Roger that T-Bone 1, moving towards the enemy" The two Veritechs were now back behind the barricade, waiting for another chance to fire.

Gambilton shook his head and spoke "Newtech Factory, T-Bone 1, returning to change vehicles." "Roger T-bone 1, what do you want?"

"Get two Toma's and a Big one ready." "Understood!" -  
"It's been a while since they last fired" "Seer, is you're radar working?" "Nah, it's jammed, why?" Slight vibrations were heard and felt from behind the two Veritech pilots. Both in battleloid form, they looked at each other before they looked behind them.

The two tomahawks, one damaged and one unscathed, came out from behind the buildings and stood still as they targeted and opened their missile pods. "Crap FIRE!" -  
"They're late…" Touji said to himself as he righted his destroid up again just so he could stay standing without leaning on a building.

The destroid's right leg was badly damaged, and sparks could be seen coming from the joint. The left cannon was completely separated from the arm and on the arm, it would need to be remade with the dent that could be seen at the end of the cannon.

Even now, Touji could see his radar beginning to spot some more enemies heading straight towards his position. "Great…spotted already…" Touji calmly and carefully turned his destroid around and prepared to fire at the intersection.

Then the destroid with shoulder missile-pods appeared. Touji's destroid also held missiles, but the amount he held was nothing compared to that of the other. Touji could only pray, and pull the trigger.

The first tomahawk went down with no problems, but then two others came. With only one cannon, Touji was forced to use more of his already depleting supply of missiles. Two more went down with that. Touji quickly turned the waist of the destroid around completely and fired on the approaching tanks.

Another quick glance at the radar showed an even larger force of enemies heading towards his position. He then noticed that one was moving faster than the rest, but it was still an enemy. "Oh…no…"

An enemy Veritech soon appeared from above the buildings and transformed into its guardian mode in order to fire on Touji. But the former-jock was one step ahead of the Veritech, he quickly gave a quick boost forward, turning the waist again in order to aim at the Veritech. The half-plane-humanoid hit the ground, but was still able to fight, after it got up. Which gave Touji time to fire on the other enemies that were beginning to get closer.

Once that was done, the Veritech was in Battleloid mode and was running at Touji ready to ram him. Touji did his best to catch the enemy and tried to bring him down. The scene consisted of a damaged destroid pushing a Battloid mode Veritech to the ground, and succeeding.

But it wasn't to last. More enemy destroids were moving through the streets and reaching Touji's position, it wasn't long until he was shot to the ground. Touji was able to survive the blast, and so did his Destroid, but the Veritech could be seen standing up again at one of the intersections between buildings.

The Veritech soon raised its weapon, aiming it straight at Touji, who shut his eyes waiting for what was to come. Before suddenly…

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHH"

From beside the Veritech, an R-Mechan shoulder rammed it, and pushed it to the side of a building, completely crushing the cockpit and it's pilot. Another sound could soon be heard, that of jet engines and missiles being fired. Thomas and Kensuke were finally there to help Touji out of this situation.

Touji didn't move, he only breathed and calmed the adrenaline going through his body. Kensuke soon reached Touji and began to do repairs before Touji called "Forget it! Let me out and get ready to self-destruct the thing, it's just a machine anyways" "Right! Get out then, I don't know how long Thomas can hold those vultures off!"

Touji quickly opened the cockpit for his destroid and walked out. He was soon picked up by the R-Mechan and carried off towards their next destination, Seer and Shinji.

The two surviving Tomahawk pilots were now dead. Both Seer and Shinji had taken damage from all the missiles, black charred spots could be seen all over their Veritech's bodies. They both fell back into their seats once the battle was over, before they received a transmission on Touji and the rest.

"This is Razor, our forces have taken over the control center. Tank is safe with Hacker and Skimmer, heading to you're location, over."

"Roger that Razor, keep going." "Striker-Lead this is ground captain, I've got some bad news. Not all of the machines were unmanned, there were some pilots and they've taken control of some of the machines."

"Doesn't matter, they'll just go down the same as the rest of the enemies." "One more problem, they were able to complete a big one…I think it's a Goliath."

At that moment, Glenn and Thomas had reached the location of Seer and Shinji. Before they could try to talk to each other, the ground shook incredibly. It continued every now and then, as if this great beast was walking through the streets. Then, a sudden rumble came and toppled Glenn's destroid to the ground.

Thomas immediately helped the destroid back up, while Shinji and Seer turned around and looked towards the entrance of the factory. There stood a gigantic mechanical beast. A large cockpit that held two large legs, two arms with three gigantic cannons on each hand, and four large cannons on the top of the cockpit. The cockpit was large enough to hold more than one person and three unseen missile pods were located at the back of the cockpit.

Alongside it came two incredibly smaller Tomahawk destroids, with these machines in sight, Shinji could only say this

"…damn…"

Not bad for a cliffhanger, even though it took quite a while to make. It's one of my longer ones I have to admit. Hope you all like it. Please review when you can. Thanks!  
C ya later Hawk Strife 


	10. In Belka 'I'

Beginning of the Belkan Conflict (II)

In the dark night of Tokyo-3, a small scream could be heard outside of an apartment complex. The shadow of a young woman could be seen panting hard and sobbing slightly, before the lights came on. They revealed her red hair, and her blue eyes, brimming with tears, looked over to a woman similar to her.

"Asuka dear, it's all right" "Mama..." Both held onto each other until Asuka calmed down enough to explain what happened. "It was a dream...I saw...them...all of them, they were running before something suddenly-" "Shh...it's all right, it was a dream, nothing more. They will come back, they can't be stopped."

Asuka nodded slowly and hugged her mother closer. The peaceful night continued in Tokyo-3, but at that moment, another city was fighting, with a surprise coming for the end of that battle.

---------

"Fire!" Shinji wasted no time and opened fire on the giant Newtech that was shooting it's own cannons. Each step it took shook the entire city incredibly, and large footprint could be seen deep into the street asphalt.

Shinji quickly ran behind a building but soon learned that even that couldn't protect him for very long. It wasn't long before the building collapsed completely and Shinji was forced to run again in order to dodge the rest of the fire coming at him.

"How are we going to get around this thing?" Shinji yelled as he fired on one of the Tomahawks. The Tomahawk quickly fell and exploded in the ground. Shinji would have felt calmer but a number of shots from the Goliath's cannons stopped that.

"There must be something we can do!" "The Factory!" Shinji looked back to see an R-Mechan running towards his location, carrying Touji on one hand. "We can use the factory to find some better mechs, or some upgrading equipment." "I'll keep this bad boy at bay while you Veritechs check out the factory."

"Touji?" "Yeah...Kensuke, drop me on top of the last destroid." "Are you kidding? That thing's still firing?" Kensuke couldn't believe what his friend was trying to do. Thomas's voice suddenly came on the radio, "I'll distract that thing, Shinji, Seer, you guys get into the factory!"

"Sounds like a plan everyone, Move out!" At once, Seer was on the move making his way around the Goliath. Shinji did so likewise, while Thomas fired warning shots all around the Tomahawk. Kensuke was quick to suddenly knock the Tomahawk down with another shoulder charge, then he dropped Touji off near the cockpit and backed off quickly.

Touji was inside the cockpit seconds later and was also destroying the remote controlling devices of the unmanned Mech. Touji took a look at the start up screen and said the title to himself.

"Tomahawk 41.7, program AI, Gata..."

"Gata? What are you talking about Touji?" "This is a pretty special Mech, Gata do you agree?"

A robotic male voice immediately answered, "Roger, Sir"

--------------

"Well we made it in all right...let's keep a lookout for anything useful Knight" "Roger that Blood, I'll keep my eyes open." Shinji kept his weapon up along with Seer.

"How are you doing on ammo?...Captain!" "What?..oh, um I've got a few rounds left, it won't last forever, you?" "Same."

Shinji and Seer kept moving forward with their Veritechs, before shots rang out from above. Shinji and Seer quickly moved away and looked towards the top. Three Veritechs in Battleloid form looked down from the top of a complex structure. "Move around, maybe we can get a clear shot from behind, Knight."

"Roger" Both Veritechs quickly made a break for the back of the complex structure. Since it was made by steel pipes, a few shots running through would bring the structure down, but the Veritech's themselves would never be able to get through the structure itself.

When Shinji and Seer met up with each other behind the structure, an enemy Veritech fell from the top and began to fire on Shinji. Shinji fired, but ran out of ammo seconds later. "Damn! I'm out" He then charged and batted the enemy Veritech with the giant rifle.

Seer shot at the downed Veritech, but the Belkan suddenly got up and fired it's boosters to move back towards the structure. It crashed into the structure and turned off it's boosters, while Seer opened the final shots on the Belkan pilot before the Veritech exploded.

"gasp gasp I'm out too..." Seer took a deep breath before he looked over at Shinji. Shinji's Veritech shrugged before he pointed at the only metal shutter doors at the back of the factory. They both nodded and used their Veritechs to pull the shutters completely open.

Inside, Shinji and Seer saw an array of broken metals. However, at the back two long shield-shaped parts were seen under strong lights.

"Well...I think these are the only things we can find or use..." "We might as well then, Shinji I'll scan on it and you keep an eye open for enemies."

--------------------

"Tank! What are we going to do?" "Easy Razor, fire on the joints, that should weaken the machine enough to make them fall to the ground." "And if it doesn't?" "Then we'll make it waste all of its ammo!"

As the fighting continued, a group of reporters were looking at the sight from a safe spot. "Ladies and Gentleman this is Caron Enerstin, on BBC. Right now we can see the city, Lindsen, where a battle between the Osea/Yuktobania allies are now fighting the Belkan soldiers. At the moment we can see one gigantic machine moving and firing on a number of smaller machines. From radio transmissions, we've been able to find that the larger one is a Belkan machine, Goliath. The smaller ones are the Osea/Yuktobanian allies, one Veritech, two destroids, and an R-Mechan."

"Good! That'll do for now, they want us out of this place so that we can get somewhere safer." The reporter, Caron Enerstin nodded before she spoke, "Well, I was hoping for some more great news to give, I want to make that anchor position you know." "Yeah I know Caron, don't worry though, you'll get you're chance."

Caron sat in the back when the third member of the crew called her to listen to the earphones. "What is it? Bill" "Just trust me!" As Caron put the earphones on, she noticed that the transmissions were military transmissions.

-"Suzuhara!...we can't krrr much more of this!" "Easy there Kensuke, just stay clear krrr -f the fight, we'll hand- krrr" Caron looked over at Bill but he kept his serious look, making her continue to listen.

"Where the hell is Ikari and Reins? Damn it, was Nerv krrr this b krrrrr"

Caron took off her earphones with wide-eyes and looked over at her friend. "Did they say what I think they said?" Bill grinned, "The Suzuhara kid, is known as Touji Suzuhara, one of the employees of Nerv. Kensuke Aida and obviously Shinji Ikari also have a strong connection to Nerv. That Reins guy must be their commanding officer or something."

Caron would have said something, but Bill had gone onto a computer and brought up a few files from it to show to Caron. "Take a look at these and you'll how big this news will be for the world."

Caron's surprise could not be hidden as she read the first few sentences of the personal file of Shinji Ikari. "PILOT?"

-----------

"Well, there aren't any booby traps on it. It's safe to pick up." Shinji sighed in relief, and then noticed that Seer was about to pick one of the shields up at that moment. "You sure you should do that?" Seer stopped at Shinji's voice, before he answered "No choice, we'll need weapons to take over this place and we're out of ammo. We might be able to use this and to find out more about it I have to attach it to the Veritech and then scan."

Seer then proceeded in picking up the shield and placing it on the left arm of his Veritech with the sharper side pointing to the ground, he then started the scan. "Hey Shinji…" "Yeah?" "After this, let's name our Veritech's, I get the feeling we'll be with these babies for a long time…"

"Yeah, I'm for that, I'm sure we can get the rest of the squadron to agree to it too." "We'll be considered crazy for a while though." "Aw, to hell with them." Shinji finished with a chuckle.

However, he stopped when Seer hissed as he took a sharp breath. "What's up?" "The scan's done……pick up the other shield 'cause it's payback time!"

-------------

The battle outside of the factory was beginning to take a new turn. The Goliath had taken much damage from the two offenders, and one distraction. The joints and the armor were weakening, and it wouldn't be long before the whole things fell apart. In fact, it was barely holding together at the moment, with smoke coming from two cannons, and sparks coming from one joint, Gambilton was not looking at a chance in surviving without reinforcements.

"Gata! Report on anything new entering the area the minute it comes into the radar!" "Roger sir." Touji kept his Tomahawk at a constant pace, not stopping for a second for fear of being shot by one of the remaining cannons at the disposal of the Goliath.

"Sir, enemy units coming from the factory. Three of them." "Damn! Kensuke, give me a radar scan!" "Roger!"

Touji maneuvered his Tomahawk until he had a clear shot at the other leg of the Goliath. But before he could fire, Kensuke called in "Confirmed. Three enemy units moving in from the factory entrance."

Touji could not react before his Tomahawk fell to the ground from a sudden impact that he didn't see. "Impact confirmed on armor" Stated Gata in a monotone voice "Damage minimal, ability to continue battle: 94.3."

Touji grimaced as he pushed his Tomahawk into a standing position. "Razor, help me out." "On the way Tank." Touji and Glenn found three Veritechs in guardian mode.

"Move away!" Touji was quick to comply with Thomas' order, knowing that he was unprepared to fight three Veritech fighters with his machine. The Tomahawk quickly ran to the closest building away from the factory, while Thomas stayed behind and fired on the three enemy Veritechs and the missiles that they fired.

Thomas moved into Battleloid mode and ran to a nearby building for cover, all the while firing bullets at the enemy. He failed to notice that the Goliath was not out of commission just yet. As the Goliath began to turn towards Glenn who had decided to help in the attack against the Veritechs, Touji opened fire from the other side, hoping that he could get a lucky shot to hit the only leg join still operational.

"No Good!" "Razor, move away, that Goliath will have you on radar lock, any second now." "I can't leave; the enemy Veritechs will get away!"

At that moment a flash of red light appeared beside one of the Eurasian Veritechs. The right arm, the one carrying the gun, suddenly fell off while the Veritech itself made a move to escape from the danger.

"Let us handle these guys!" Shinji came out with his Veritech, a shield on the left arm and a small contraption in his right hand.

The three Veritechs immediately began to transform in order to find a safe place to regroup. However another red line suddenly appeared and began to cut through one of the Veritechs while it was transforming. It cut the Veritech in two, and caused an instant explosion.

"Shinji's right, we can handle this for a little while." The last undamaged Veritech made a move to fire missiles at Seer, before a red beam passed through the chest of the Veritech, and then proceeded to do a spin and split it in two, causing it to explode.

The damaged Veritech, knowing that it was in no condition to fight, finished transforming into its plane mode and began to fly away.

Touji noticed and locked on to the escaping Veritech before firing a number of missiles.

The plane moved in order to try and dodge, but sniper fire from Glenn's Veritech damaged an engine, and the plane came down once the missiles reached.

"Last one" Shinji took a look at the last surviving joint of the Goliath. He then brought out the same contraption he held in his Veritech's right hand, then a red beam appeared on both sides of the pole-like structure.

Shinji's Veritech then charged forward and slashed at the joint before running it through with the other side after spinning around. The joint exploded before Shinji could boost away, but his Veritech managed to get out of the way unscathed.

As the Goliath fell, a cheer could be heard over the com-link. "Krrr good work Striker squadron…confirmed destruction of the Goliath, any casualties? Over. Krrr"

"Negative G-force, no casualties. Is the mission over?" "It's done, reinforcements are on the way, and all vehicles have confirmed orders to RTB." "Roger that, let's move Striker squadron." Seer cut the channel and then prepared to take off before another voice came on the line.

"Hey guys what about us?" Touji, Glenn and Kensuke looked pitiful while they were on the ground, wondering how they would reach the base.

"Chopper Transport, Baker here, we'll be taking the ground vehicles." Seer noticed a helicopter with two bars hanging off of each side of the chopper. It lowered slowly and waited until the three ground vehicles were hooked to the bars. Then they were slowly lifted up the bar and off the ground; then the chopper took off and began it's journey back to the nearest base.

"Useful little gadget huh?" A strong Australian accent came through the com-link while the journey continued. Seer chuckled, "Baker is there a co-pilot sitting beside you?" "uh…roger that, 1st class airman, Michael. He's my gunner." "Good to meet you!"

Shinji laughed "Likewise Michael…Baker, what's your callsign?" "Combat/Transport Chopper; number X-39 Wivsky, codenamed Seagrate." "Thank you Seagrate, let's hurry up and get home shall we?"

Seer nodded with Thomas' suggestion, "Let's move then Skimmer."

"Blood, this is Tank, what the hell is it that you used on those guys?" Seer and Shinji smiled, Shinji then decided to answer, "It's an energy blade and a shield that came with it, it's used for melee combat. Blood got the sword, while I got the double sided blade."

"Sweet! How are they working?" "Perfectly, we weren't even affected by our weapons clear."

"This is Seagrate, Mike calling over, I'm gonna put the news on if you'd like" "Roger that Mike, let's hear what the news has to say about this war."

News Break "Today at the city of Lindsen, Eurasian powers retreated thanks to new Osean/Yuktobanian allies, as well as pilots from the ISAF armies. And today we have received even more interesting news, three pilots have been identified and connected with the companies of Seele, JSSDF, and finally and most importantly NERV."

Shinji pulled back in surprise, this did not look like it was going in a good direction.

"Allied Fighter and Ground Pilots, Touji Suzuhara, Kensuke Aida, and Shinji Ikari; are confirmed as closely connected to NERV, and are also confirmed as residents of Tokyo-3. Touji Suzuhara and Shinji Ikari are confirmed pilots of the large Evangelions, and finally Shinji Ikari is confirmed as the son of the Commander in power of NERV, Gendou Ikari. More News in 10 minutes."

"Well whaddya know? I guess the world will really know who the heroes of the Angel wars are." Baker responded over the com-link, while the rest of the Striker squadron were visibly paler than usual.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suppose I could say that I've come back fromt the dead, or that I came back just to die. But I still need to continue on with my writing. Past readers have every right to be annoyed or even angry with me for not continuing any of my stories for such a long time, and I sincerely apologize. I'm back and I'm ready to work! I needed to get some time to think about things like my future and all that, not such a big deal right?

Thank you again for reading anyhow, and I hope that you will continue to read and review.

Hawk Strife

--Rafiq Mandal


End file.
